Hemingway Never Did This: January 2011

Thursday, January 27, 2011

GOOOOOOALS!

    I love to tell stories. I want to be a storyteller and so far, the most exciting medium I’ve found to do that through is video. In terms of filmmaking, as of now, my goals are simply to learn as much as possible, take advantage of every opportunity I’m given, and see where that takes me. Ultimately, I want produce/help produce quality work that people will enjoy watching. Right now, there isn’t any particular position that I just HAVE TO HAVE, because I haven’t tried on all the hats yet. I enjoy writing. I enjoy operating the camera. I enjoy envisioning scenes and telling people where to go and what to do. I’m even starting to have fun playing around with lighting, as frustrating as it can be sometimes. I think like most everything else, I’ll like it a lot more once I get a better understanding of how things work and how I can manipulate them.

    I suppose since I can’t say much about the position goals, I’ll say a little more about the kind of things I want to make. Ideally, I want to work on projects that people can learn from. Whether that means documentaries about interesting people or places, or shorts and feature length productions. I want to show people things they’ve never seen before and/or make them think about things they’ve never thought before.

    My learning goals for this course are pretty similar to my other goals. I want to learn as much as I can, seize each and every opportunity to practice and perfect new skills, and hopefully create work that others will enjoy watching. To get a little more specific, I especially want to get better at lighting and more familiar with past and present filmmakers and their works. I also would love to get a more in depth understanding of how to operate different types of cameras, and there will always be some new trick or something I didn’t know how to do in Final Cut. I'm really looking forward to this semester and everything we will be working on. :)

Thursday, January 20, 2011

The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a children's book that I would recommend to any and every one. It was written and illustrated by Brian Selznick. The book is several hundred pages long, but the majority of the pages are captivating drawings. There are words too, but for the most part, this book is a wonderful example of how to tell stories visually. The book also gets bonus points because it references Georges Méliès, who is one of my favorite early filmmakers. The entire book could be read in about an hour or two, and Scorsese is actually directing a movie version expected to be released later this year.

The Science of Sleep is a film that I find incredibly interesting. I've always been into surreal, dreamy things (as I'm sure you'll notice a little further down this page). If you have never seen this movie before, please do.

El Secreto de Sus Ojos or The Secret in Their Eyes is a film I saw a few months ago. These two stills are from a scene where the two main characters have just been informed that the murderer/rapist they convicted has been let out early on good behavior and that there is nothing that they can do about it. As they get in the elevator to exit the building, the newly-freed killer gets in with them. Although they ride down without speaking, the killer begins to take out (what might have even been a government issued) gun and loads it. After several tense moments, he exits and in the reflection of the elevator walls, we see him turn and finally face the people who put him behind bars. Because we can no longer see the gun in the shot, is unclear if this is the end for the main characters or not. I find shots that utilize reflections as a reveal or to build tension exciting and visually interesting.

Pes is brilliant. He uses stop motion animation to create short films and commercials. He uses every day objects as substitutions for other objects, if that makes any sense. Everything he does is so weird and interesting to watch. This still is from my favorite short called "Western Spaghetti." Instead of me rambling on about how much I love it, I'll just post a link so that you can see for yourself.

Western Spaghetti

If you like it, watch some of his others. They are all pretty short.

I would recommend Game Over, Roof Sex, Moth, and Fireworks.

The rest of these images are simply some of my favorite pictures to look at. As I mentioned before, I really like surrealism. I also really like sweet things and things that can make you grin just by looking at them. There are a few other pictures that may have more of a politcal message, like this first one "Mujer Fatal," or are classics that I've always found captivating, like "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror."