Thursday, April 27, 2006

Holy crap! A new post!

Wow. Time sure flies when you're doing something!

Sorry it's been so long since I updated, but at least I'm not as bad as THIS guy! I'm teasing The Limey, as it's a good thing to have so much going on in your life that you're not constantly updating about nothing. Rightly, he leaves that for us pitiful blokes with too much time on our hands and no cable to watch EPL football.

But as the video monitor said, "I degauss."

I've been spending a lot of time fiddling with the third and final film for my "Art of Filmmaking" class, entitled "Dissolving," which is finally completed and uploaded for those who would like to view it.

Here's the QuickTime version (5MB)for Apple users and smart folks who use QuickTime on PCs.

Here's the Windows version (6MG)for the other 90% of the world.

The previous film ,"Valentine's Day," was a "continuity" exercise, meaning that it was to feature conventional editing -- i.e., if a guy is sitting at a table flipping through a newspaper, and you switch from a side view to an overhead view, the page he's flipping should be at the same position as you make the cut, to make the edit seamless for the viewer. In addition, the second film was to tell a story. The primary goal for this last film was to create a mood -- it could accompany music or a poem, but the idea was for it to be atmospheric.

This was a good challenge for me. I love story-telling and I'm not too bad at it. But I'm less inclined to be more abstract -- or to use the technical term, "artsy fartsy. " This last film, then, is designed to be a sort of meditation on the tenuousness of existence, using The Calamity for inspiration. "The Unlikely Event" song "Creepy" served as the musical inspiration.

Here are some lovely stills that Argotnaut took during the production. (Note dead dog in the middle of the top shot.) If you watch the film you'll see a nice "dolly shot," the "dolly" being the cart on which the camera is pushed around. The second photo reveals the hi-tech dolly I used: my bicycle trailer. Actually, it worked reasonably well. Other directors advocate using a wheelchair as a dolly in low-budget productions like mine. pfft. My method is far superior! (sniff)



In other news, I got Argotnaut the first half of her birthday present: a chaise longue, which she's been clamoring after for a couple of years now. Note in the top picture that the doggy is suddenly alive again! Also admire the hi-tech sun screen in the bottom picture that Argotnaut uses to shade her computer. Very complex arrangement.



Ah, the leisurely life of a student...that was a joke honey!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, wow.

Anonymous said...

Hey, isn't that dog thing a continuity screw-up?

Andrew said...

Fortunately, Buddy was not a continuity screw-up, because he laid in the same position during the entire shoot. (He was "best boy grip"...on his chewy! Har har.)

liz said...

That computer shade is a *lot* like the one I used on my trip to Florida. I posted it on my blog at the time, I think.

When will we get to see this existential film?

Andrew said...

The existential film is available in the post...just click on the format you want to download. Perhaps I didn't make that clear enough.

I'm thinking for Argotnaut's birthday, I should maybe get her an patio umbrella. Or better yet, one of those virtual reality visors that will block out the outside world entirely!

liz said...

Duh...

It just goes to show how I can now read something and somehow forget its existence within milliseconds. (It works that way for talking, too.)

Anonymous said...

On the plus side, you're never bored-- you know, like goldfish.

Anonymous said...

I just viewed the movie. Holy crap! Very moving. Ya know Bro, if you really feel like that, you might not be living in the most relaxing area of the country. Just a thought.