April 23rd class

For the film that we saw, I didn't think it was too interesting, as it didn't keep my attention much and I ended up falling asleep. Again going back to sound, I think the sound quality of this piece was poor and think that good sound will better the work. When the girls were running around the gym, it sounded like a train going by. Also they were running in a line (one girl behind another) kind of like a train. When they went past the camera running, it was like when someone is on a train and everything outside is going by fast. When the girls were stretching and they were chanting, I thought they were singing a song, but then later thought that perhaps they were counting instead as they did their excises.

Hamilton

The film "Hamilton" that we saw left a lot of unanswered questions. I will tell what I thought to have happened in the film.
First of all, I think the film was supposed to take place in the early to mid nineties. I thought the opening credits were interesting because of how they went away one letter at a time. I didn't know where the film was set, so as I was watching it, I decided Florida, because they had mentioned alligators and Louisiana. Then I saw the bus and it said Maryland, so I didn't know if that was what state they were in or not. The credits at the end said MD and Baltimore, but I thought it was weird there was a sticker on the window of the truck at the end of the film that said Key West (pretty sure that's what it said).
I liked this film for the fact that it kind of reminded my of summer where I grew up. Otherwise, I was bothered that there were unanswered questions. I had thought the film was called "Hamilton" because either that's where they lived (and that turned out to be not true) or it was the kid's name--but then I guess his name turned out to be Joe. So I am still unclear as to why the film has the title that it has.
I concluded that Joe was 16-23 (as his friends were)--even though I found out he was 20 (so I was in the right age range)--and he got this one girl (the one with dark hair) pregnant. She had the baby (the red-headed baby) and was caring for her all by herself. He was off working and didn't come by to see her often. He decided to go see her at the end (when he has the flowers), but she has already left, and so he will just miss her. She seems to be upset by this.
Two things that bothered me were: 1.) why were they saying "when will you come over the house?" instead of "...come over to the house"? and 2.) I thought this film was really slow-moving and lacked action...it didn't keep your attention very well.
I suspect the fact there was not much editing (which would give different viewpoints in a single scene) was due to the type of film used. It said super 16 at the beginning, so I figured it was like super 8 that jennifer montgomery had used. This made me realize that I really enjoy the editing type film (to watch) instead.

last weeks works

From what I remember about Jean Genet in Chicago, I didn't like this work. I think this was the one where I thought the filmmaker wanted you to like the work and consider it cool, but I did not.

As for ...Remaking Jane Fonda, I thought the old look of it was interesting (because it wasn't made too long ago). I remember thinking that the man exercising looked anorexic (especially his legs) and I wondered if he would slip (it would've been more interesting) in that puddle of rainwater he was "exercising" in on the balcony.

Goss' Stranger Comes to Town was not very interesting, but I have decided that the videogame look of the characters helped to give them this "outsider" or foreign look, which is how mainstream America often sees these immigrants. Some of what the people had to say was interesting, but overall, I think this work was a bit too long.

J. Montgomery's work

I was not a fan of her work. The main reason is that I was bored and found a lack of a topic in the work. I do not understand when artists/filmmakers decide to use bodily fluids in work. In my opinion, blood, semen, and urine are not intended for artwork. There is nothing beautiful about it. I think using unconventional media for work is fine, but in cases like this I find it in poor taste. Maybe because diseases can easily come from these substances. I don't think the absence of these would have made the work more enjoyable for me, as I found the work uninteresting as a whole anyway.

vladmir's work

I enjoyed vladmir's viewmaster work. It was unique and reminded me of the Mickey Mouse one that I had as a kid...it made me wish I still had it. Not only was the pictures/listening to the cd interesting, but the packaging was unique and very nicely done. My favorite ones were the cockroach one (even though I don't like to look at cockroaches) and the deer one. I like the music and the fact that it was black and white. Having us go through the third disc of that one (I think) constantly as the train was coming really worked well. I think that this is a promising choice of media for her. I think she could benefit if she made some for kids and made them educational and then they could be in the classroom. She is really dedicated and I just really like the whole concept. I realized as we were about to view another story that this is good for all ages, probably from age five and up. This is an artist whose future work I would be interested in viewing.

war-torn

I found some similarities between Laura Marks' letters from Beirut and Chantal Akerman's notes on D'est. Both tell of countries/areas affected by war, about maybe a decade or so apart. I thought of Marks' easier to relate to, even though there were at times I seemed to be unfamiliar with what she was talking about or referring to. I liked how she balanced the topic of what was going on over there militarily and how people back home could help and the topic about what socializing was like over there for her and the people around her. I think the letters made me realize that I don't have a lot of knowledge of what is going on over there. When thinking about the fights in the Middle East, I usually just think of Iraq and Iran (when talking about fighting over there presently). I didn't feel like Akerman's notes were as well developed as Marks' letters; and maybe that's because there were just notes, as opposed to letters--usually people make their letters more detailed and structured than their notes.

camera obscura

I found the camera obscura piece to be rather interesting. I have read about them in the past (in my art books) and never got the chance to see one. Even though I read about them and saw diagrams, I was still a little confused when I first stepped into the piece. I wasn't sure what the camera was doing in the corner. When I first saw the wall with the images, I didn't understand what I was seeing. I knew the image was supposed to be upside-down, but maybe I forgot when I stepped in there. I found it really interesting when people walked outside and you saw them upside down. I was thinking that would be interesting to see, and after the lecture, I got to see that. I also got to see a motorcycle go past, which was interesting, as it was different than all the cars that went past. I wish I had gotten to see a bus as well.

From the diagrams of camera obscuras I've seen, there is just one upside-down image; however in this piece, the artist put about 4 or 5 next to each other so the image filled the whole wall. Sometimes as a car went past, you could see it in two of the images (or frames I guess you could call them) at once as the car went along.

This seems like art more than film, but I guess because the images move (for example cars and people), it is also like film. The diagrams I saw just showed nature (like trees and stuff) so that stuff would have been more still; I hadn't known that you could have moving images as well...this changes the whole experience.

I think I first understood the image as I looked to the top. Then I could make out the bike racks and parking meters...if you look straight at the street and the cars, you may be a little more confused. So that's what I would do differently if I ever went into one again...try to look a the top (or bottom or some edge) first.

I thought the outside of the camera obscura (in the building) looked like it was under constuction or something.

I liked the artwork the artist showed us on the computer...I liked the clouds moving past on the three planes.

audio

Audio--or lack of--can really hurt a piece. It can make the piece less of a success. Two examples we saw in class were the one where the artist took all the information from the day on his computer and just let it play. The sound was very annoying. The images were interesting though and I was glad when Carl finally let the piece play on mute. I wanted to walk out of there as the sound was playing. The other piece was the one with the rolling footage of the woman. The loud repetitive sound wasn't too bad, but seemed too loud and took away from the visual part of the work. It sounded like being in a factory. The fact that that piece's visual images seemed to pause shortly with the sound as it rolled along was distracting. I wonder why some people make the choices they do about their sound in the work they do...it seems some would be better off with different sound or no sound.

Cecelia Condit's work

I believe I have seen Cecelia's video before in an art class. I will say that the one part that I didn't like about it was the audio. The voice was horrible and made it hard to listen to---too high of a voice. I made me want to just get up and walk out of the room. However, although I hardly had any idea of what seemed to be going on, I will say that the filming of this work is interesting. I particularly like when the dark haired woman was laying down and seemed to be dreaming and it was dark except for the one light on her face. She laid still and the light on her face was a video playing--her face was being used as a projection screen. Another person's face was being shown on there, and this was interesting, because the lady was lying there with her mouth and eyes closed and the face being projected had the eyes blinking and the mouth was moving as the person talked. It was weird to see the open eyes and mouth opening and closing over the closed eyes and closed mouth of the sleeping actress.

January 29th Class

I had come late to class this day and came in towards the end of what I think was the first film to be shown. I was pretty tired and ended up sleeping through most of the films. One I shut my eyes on purpose a couple of times before giving in to sleep because the visual was making me dizzy. There was a bunch of things moving around at once...it looked like black and white photographs of buildings...

My favorite piece was Commingled Containers. I thought the concept of putting the lens underwater was unique and made some nice visual artwork. Before I knew the lens had been underwater, I thought the work looked like clouds, bubbles, and water.

As for the readings for that week, I did not enjoy Jonas Mekas' as much. The last piece had and interesting idea of a person's skull being like a dark theater in which we view movies. Stan Brakhage's passages on the second page of our text were interesting; I particularly the first two--the one about the eye that "does not respond to the name of everything..." (like green grass) and the one about deliberately changing the film or lens to create new ways of filming.

I would say my favorite was the first reading (by Maya Deren) talking about how amateur film-makers should use their freedom to their advantage. I liked how she was talking about how to use the "movement of wind, or water, children, people, elevators, balls, etc ..." in the work and that "your mistakes will not get you fired"; this is something that college students should keep in mind as they are learning, even if they are not film majors. Amateurs don't have to worry about big budgets for their work. She also talked about how a human can make the equiment work to its full advantage.

January 22nd class

I found the So Is This film to be very boring. I did not like the idea of reading one word at a time and thought the content of what we were reading not interesting at all. I remember my head started to hurt as well as my neck and wanted to look away, but then knew I'd miss the words. There should have been a message or story, but I just found it rather pointless. I hope I never have to see that film again. I do remember that my mind started to wander after awhile...

There There Square I found to be more of an interest to me. It seemed to have a point compared to the other film, and I liked how the maps became deformed and changed to create other images.