Thursday, January 19, 2017

More appropriation films - incorporating new ideas with old footage

https://vimeo.com/163328710
tell me a story

Phil Hoffman
https://vimeo.com/channels/320131/page:3


Woody Allen's What's Up Tiger Lily



Found footage compilations - many examples




From the Sea to the Land Beyond
British Sea Power provide the stirring soundtrack to director Penny Woolcock's mesmeric and uplifting film, consisting of clips of the British seaside and coast taken from the BFI National Film Archive.



another clip:
What does the past represent? Who remembers it and how?


PROJECT 1: TIME TRAVELER: STORY/PORTRAIT

REVISED
PROJECT 1: Experiments with frame and form
THEMES: Time traveling or Inhabiting

Create a 2-3 minute experimental portrait or story.
Think of all constructions from video as a kind of time traveling. At a minimum, by recording, one is saving something that happened in one time and watching it in another. 

The goal of Project 1 is to complete a short film that allows latitude in its telling about another time while offering a refresher in editing and maybe shooting. 
You can tell an ordinary story or do something non-linear and experimental. 
Do think about meaning, but remember that meaning is made in the mind of the observer- as an artist, think about how the colors, shapes and forms create associations and meanings. 

Your project can use appropriated (found) footage and/or newly shot footage from any device including your iphone.
For this piece, I want you to really think about how each frame – or shot - relates to the overall progression of your montage.  In other words, how does the composition of the frame change throughout the piece. This can be experimental. It does not need to be an ordinary story with character and plot. 
Try to use as many close-ups as possible to make the video exciting and telegraphic.

Choose one of the following meditations on personhood, time and place:

A Story from the Future. This can be imagined as a letter from the future or a portrait of yourself as a real or fictional character in the future. Some questions to start with: How do the events of today, such as politics, industry and family impact or look like in a future, real or imaginary? How do films of the past/today portray the future?

Remembering or re-editing the Past. This can take the approach of a memoir in which you recall or tell a story from the past- from your life or longer ago. Or you can re-edit the past, changing the course of the present. Or insert yourself into the past.

Self in Place. For this option, you can make a self-portrait of yourself and a place or places you inhabit- as a real or fictitious character (unreliable narrator). The place can be real or imaginary/surreal. You can imagine “yourself” as you really are or as a fiction/animal/inanimate object.

For all projects

• Try to experiment with how the story is told, thinking about the form within your images as much as possible.
• You may use effects such as changing duration or layering footage.
• Use cross cutting between perspectives (first, second person, omniscient viewer, seeing what protagonist sees, observing protagonist). Use these changes of perspective to create a dialogue between different kinds of footage (new footage versus appropriated footage).

Your video should employ the fundamental “cast” of visual components: SPACE, LINE, SHAPE are most important here.  TONE, COLOR and MOVEMENT can also be used.

Rhythm and repetition: You can repeat shots. Think about how the speed of your montage might change and vary, and what that means. 
Affinity and Contrast: Contrast can come from intensity in line, shape, color, tone and space. Affinity means similarity- it expresses the opposite of intensity in a frame- it can be seen in reduced tone, harmonious colors,

FOOTAGE can come from movies, advertising or television as well as you archival sources that offer a look into the past such as ARCHIVE.ORG: https://archive.org/. Use Youtube, Vimeo and any other places where footage is archived on the internet. You can also crack and use DVDS. Get the highest resolution footage you can. 

To down load and CONVERT; DIRPY.COM is  effective online.
For Firefox browsers, Video downloadhelper can be downloaded and used.

Pay attention to copyright restrictions that constrain your use 
- in terms of duration-                                     
- in terms of meaning and results

OTHER GUIDELINES
• Do not use one source of sound or musical performance through the whole film unless it is your own musical performance or you have permission to use it.

• EFFECTS: Be judicious in use of effects, using them if they contribute to the meaning. You should be prepared to defend your use of them; ask what they bring to the piece.

• Concentrate on closeups.  Use WS or MWS for establishing scenes, ideas, settings or a crucial part of the story.

• Convey emotion. It can change over the time of the film. You do not need to show people to convey an emotion. Use color, shape, expression and speed to convey emotion. 

•   Pay attention especially to how you fill the frame and use empty and filled spaces. 

Record keeping: WRITE DOWN where you got your footage as you go forward. 
Cite:  film name, producer/director (if available),  year, if available, website name,
 eg About Bananas. Castle Films, 1935. Archive.org
Credit these sources in the credits of your film. 

DUE DATES FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT

Jan 26: 2-3 sentence description of project and rough storyboard.
 You should have started acquiring footage.
Feb 2: Rough cut for sharing in class
Feb : 9 Final project
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Final project will be compressed and loaded onto server – we will cover that in class.

Track and Field

Student work from the University of Chicago School of Visual Arts. This is an experimental documentary that relies on many different kinds of shots, rhythmic editing and music to tell an alternative kind of story.


Experimental Film examples: STructuralist films

Zorn's Lemma and Hug you and Squeeze you.
The filmmaker is Hollis Frampton and the film was made in 1970. It is an example of what is called an experimental structural film- in that there is a structure or systematic framework that guides the filmmakers decision making process.  60 minutes long.
Zorn's Lemma- experimental film A-Z



To Hug you and Squeeze you is by Wago Kreider by Wago Kreider

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Jump cuts from 1900

What is a jump cut? It is an edit made in film or video that is discontinuous from the action. With a jump cut, a jump in time is made from one frame to another without trying to hide it. Jump cuts are often used in interviews, for some films.

student graphic match videos



 

by Alex Froelich

Abolition of Work from Naoki Izumo on Vimeo.


The Abolition of Work by Naoki Izumo

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

framing Interviews

About framing interviews.
Here are some examples:




A professional cameraman Simon Wyndham gives tips on framing for interviews: "1. Try to vary your interview composition. In 16:9 don't be afraid to go in closer and crop the head of the interview subject. It is part and parcel of using that frame shape. Try slight angles. You don't have to perform a full dutch tilt, but sometimes a subtle angle can make a dull looking shot look a bit more dynamic. Try having your interview subject standing somewhere instead of sitting down..... more