So, I am returning to the blog. I know I expressed that I wanted to continue all along, but blogging is time-consuming and involved at times. If I can't do it right, I don't like to do it. I have continued with art, especially painting. However, I have had a lot going on so sometimes I think it is better to keep making the art and living life for real than writing about it on the internet. Or maybe I have it backwards and this is or will be real life in time... To connect to the last post that I left, The Room is a timely topic. I just got back from winter break and over that break I had the opportunity to meet Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero (one of the other actors from the picture) at a viewing of the film. One of the best nights of my life. Interactive audience with footballs, screaming and throwing plastic spoons...
It is sometimes really helpful for me to think about progress in steps or separate phases. That way I keep moving and focus on one thing at a time, but when I look back I see that I have accomplished more than I am aware of even after I started thinking about my video in a final phase. Once it got to a certain degree of finish I started thinking of things in terms of finishing touches on a minor scale, but in some ways I have been doing more work or at least more intensive alteration since I have entered this stage. There are always a few more things that I'd like to tweak and play around with. I hope that feeling serves the project well, but I also I hope I do reach a state where I can feel satisfied with the product to feel like the video has reached my original or revised set of goals and encapsulates the message that I want viewers to receive. I have been working to swap out and trim down some of the current scene choices to make the video a bit tighter, more direct, and more effective.
The result of changing, trimming,and adding footage, not to mention credits and titles, has put me very near 10 minutes. I think that means I still have a good minute and a half by which to reduce my video so that I safely fit within the confines of the ten minute viewing timeslot with a brief introduction and maybe a question or two, barring technical difficulties. I hope to avoid technical difficulties by starting to think about putting my project on dvd middle to late next week when I still have time to work out kinks in the final stages of development. This week I have done a lot of tedious fiddling with minor parts to get them right, find a medium between abrupt and lengthy transitions, add some subtle filters for emphasis and some aesthetic purpose(rather than unnecessary dazzle), and try to consider solutions for some of the criticism I have received. So far, these general issues seem to be getting resolved better than I anticipated.
My next concern is music. I want to keep the strongest portions of the video intact without detracting with music, but I think it will also help make some of the less effective transitions work, and generally help hold the video together. I am a bit apprehensive because I don't want to disrupt the current tone of the film or overemphasize it too much, just compliment it. I have been dabbling with Garageband and I have started recording material for background sound, but I am not far enough along to say how much it will help. I definitely think music is important to the communication of a vision if applied more judiciously than arbitrarily. One of my concerns is vocal use. I think that is the most effective and also the most dangerous part of adding music. I don't want to steal anything from dialogue, but some parts may not make sense to have solely instrumental music. Both can be powerful if used well. I have also been trying to find the right angle on my working title. Here are some of my considerations:
Un/Familiar Voyage Reverse Shock: An Uncanny Journey Raw Shock: A Story of Return Raw Shock: A Study in Cultural Adaptation
I think that the title should be open to interpretation to make the viewer wonder, but also be applicable enough to suggest that some kind of analysis is taking place.
This week I did shoot a little more video including some scenes with friends and my nephew. However, I also came to the realization that I need to revise my ideas a bit. I am putting my original objectives aside in attempts to reduce my concepts into something practical and streamlined. In researching mentors I have considered the benefits of taking bold, decisive steps with my video to convey a message that meets my aim. I have plenty of material, so I have primarily been reviewing and editing it. I have one final cut project that is already close to five minutes, but does not adequately encapsulate what I imagine for my final product. I think I will now reorder and reconsider those clips, cut them down or cut them out, and try a slightly different approach to matching up scenes once I have redesigned the structure of plot points and interviews. I now see that I must be more deliberate, and concise in my integration of the two. I hope to spend enough time editing in the following days to be on the right track by the showing of my rough cut next week. I believe it takes a great deal more skill to make a short video than a long one. Perhaps, I will continue with my larger ideas later, but for now I hope I am up to the task of revising my vision for brevity. I am going to try to think about styles and techniques of condensing narration that are used in music videos and movie trailers to find a better way of conveying a strong message in a few minutes of time.
I feel that I have made some valuable progress over reading period. I always think there could have been a little more, but I am satisfied that I got some great footage of events that will help me structure the daily events portion of my film that will help to advance some kind of plot with in my piece however minimal it may be in the end (I would like to point out that some of the most successful videos to my mind are capable of having very little plot, but survive on character development and other elements: e.g. Seinfeld and the show about nothing idea). Anyway, I have begun using the flip style mino camera, which I like now that I have gotten used to it. It is a bit shaky at times, especially while zoomed, but it is decent to manage. I also do like some of the differences in film quality and as before I do embrace some of the home-video feeling for my project. I really like that the camera is so small and portable. I have been taking it around with me and been able to capture a lot more unplanned events as they occur to assist in obtaining a natural, organic feel to my scenes. I don't want them to feel stiff and scripted, but realistic and believable. This camera seems to allow me to accomplish this with much less effort and also more discreetly. Another good aspect of this camera is the ability to capture the already created clips from usb connection, rather than from mini dv tapes, which can be frustrating. This is a lot easier and less hassle when I want to keep shooting video and worry less about securing my footage.
This weekend I was able to film: interactions with one of my friends from Florence study abroad, some first person view fencing, public encounters in stores, and a development of characters/ establishment of cameraman identity.
I plan to have some more shots in the coming week that will follow more of my original vision: a professor interview, interactions with my nephew, more conflict development, the role of friends, and some of the resolution to the film.
Overall, I think that my video is getting much closer to the point where I can delve into a lot of editing and reduce the amount of time I spend filming.
Today, I met with Ian to discuss some of the details of the video as we begin to plan it out in more detail. We discussed primarily the key plot points and how to introduce the concepts of the film in its beginning as well as uses for other characters. My character, I will be myself in the film, is starting a video project out concern for issues of reverse culture shock and paranoia that results from focusing on this phenomenon that I had previously disregarded. The video will then follow my progress as I make the transition from life in Italy back to Appleton, Wisconsin at a new and improved Lawrence University. We discussed the rest of the plot as it will unfold with my life and become entwined with Ian's own media project with the services he offers on campus coming to my aid in search to find peace and resolution for my difficulties coping with my change of lifestyle. We decided upon a number of events and locations to film as well as some of the interactions of specific characters and the role of interviews in the film. We imagine the film to be a sort of daily diary with excerpts that serve as anecdotes in my daily life as my situation progresses with time. Then the interviews will be perspectives of the different characters or sometimes my own thoughts and reflections of events as they occur to provide the viewer with other information. We imagined that this would be a style that adds insight and humor to the context of events in a similar use to this style of cut away interview scene used in a show like The office. After finishing discussion of all the necessary elements and brainstorming ideas for the interview questions and other daily events to be covered in the film, Ian and I began to layout a plan of action for the coming days to get started on the project and get everything in order to proceed ahead. We even planned the next time this sort of planning and preparation would continue in our schedule. IHRTLUHC Jordan Severson
Besides the musical ideas I have been considering and developing with previous posts, I was thinking about another project that would allow me to make a collaborative video that combines some of the knowledge and experiences that I have gained especially from my recent trip abroad in Italy. Today, I thought about some of the things that I have learned and I realized that I may have been wrong to pursue some of the concepts that I had been working on and I found a more elegant solution that might be more all-encompassing of the types of goals that I have with a video project.
One of the amazing people I met abroad was more positive than anyone I have ever met and he is currently a pretty successful painter. Maybe not by everyone's standards, but by mine he is the most successful and knowledgeable person I have come into contact with because he understands life and is not of afraid of anything that it gives him. He remains confident and understands how to make something into nothing, having been completely broke a number of times in his life and recovering to be at an even better stage in his life. He taught me to find something good in a bad situation. Sometimes he had terrible things happen in his life, but rather than quitting when most would, he saw hard times as an opportunity and looked to learn something from even the worst of circumstances because he adamantly believes that things happen for a reason and that everyone has the choice to improve themselves in each situation they find themselves.
While I was realizing how bad I felt for not completing my powerpoint presentation for my class pitch of ideas, somewhat due to technical difficulties and somewhat to my own lack of foresight and preparation, I had one of the moments that my friend described. I discovered an idea that was already in my head, but I just hadn't given adequate thought to. I realized a way to collaborate with friends even though I thought our goals would not line up before. More importantly I think my video concept will allow me to combine many of the ideas I was thinking into something more natural and rewarding to develop as a project. I never would have found this idea that I think is probably the best project choice if I had not messed up and felt terrible about it.
Anyway, I have been thinking of a lot of things since I have a great many ideas from all the stimuli my brain received in Europe, but I have had trouble organizing and deciding exactly which ones to pursue first and to put into my art so as not to waste them. Now I realize my video can combine many of them and the obvious thing to do all along was right in my thoughts. My video project can actually be the process of my organization of thoughts, concepts, memories and decisions how to continue from here. This may not be clear to those reading this post at this time, but I hope to flesh out the details soon. My basic idea is to create a video that is somewhat documentary, somewhat scripted that shows things from my perspective and also incorporates interviews. The daily kind of interactions that I would film will show progress and other ideas that I have to sort out at the same time as the help I get from friends and use of the knowledge I have gained. At the same time, I want to use the video as a platform for my friend, who will hopefully collaborate on this project, to help boost the notoriety of his own endeavors around campus.
On a basic level, I want to make a video that is pretty humorous and enjoyable that people can relate to in a realistic, but exaggerated way. The best example I can give is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia as in the clip below. It is a story about 5 self-absorbed characters who are realistic, but exaggerated to make hilarious storylines. I plan to highlight issues like cultural differences and change that I have witnessed to make other people more aware of them, but in a way that they can laugh too, and not think about the concepts they are internalizing as they learn from my experiences too. This way, I can share my benefits with others and get some people to laugh. Some of the stylistic aspects I envision come from another tv show I am fond of called trailer park boys. The beauty of this Canadian comedy is that it pretends to be basically what it is. It is in some way mockumentary as a tv crew is hired to follow a couple of guys around the trailer park to see what it is like in their daily lives. In this way, the cameras even become a part of the episodes in a clever way as characters, but also favorable in that they can use a very low-tech, low-budget kind of shooting style that makes the idea more believable and convincing at the same time. I hope to use some similar concepts in my own production. IHRTLUHC Jordan Severson
