Final Blog/ Rank Projects Best to Worst

6 X 1 Final Blog /Rate Projects Most Fav 1 to Least Fav 6

Sadly, this is my last blog for my favorite class 6X1. It’s going to be really hard to rate my favorites from most favorite to least favorite because I truly thoroughly enjoyed every one of them. Some of them I thought I would not like but ended up loving.  I will list my favorite 1 to least favorite 6.

1) Cameraless Filmmaking: this is one of my favorites, but I must say at first I was a little apprehensive, because I was worried I wasn’t going to be able to come up with anything cool. It’s a really strange thing making something that you won’t know how it turned out until you actually play it through the projector after it’s completed. What I liked most was actually learning how to do some of the fimmaking techniques used by Stan Brakhage and the likes.

2) The Bolex Long Take: I really enjoyed this one too because we got to not only shoot 16mm on the Bolex, but also got to hand process the film, something I’ve always wanted to do. I was really pleased with the outcome of the shoot, especially the exposure on the hand-processed film. To actually see the image appear in front of your eyes was pretty awesome.

3) Rythmic Editing: The big reason I liked this one so much was because, I was having a hard time trying to come up with a concept. But once I got a few things shot and looked at the footage, my concept came to me immediately. I really enjoyed coming up with cool bits and pieces of my footage rhythmically to tell a story.

4) Recycled Footage/Flxer: I was excited to do this project from the beginning, because I really like Craig Baldwin’s films of Other Cinema. He takes old found footage and recontextualizes it into his own narrative, while calling attention to social problems. The fun part of this assignment was going through videos on YouTube trying to come up with my concept. There are so many options; it was a bit overwhelming trying to pick things that fit together to tell my own 1-minute story. I was happy with the way mine turned out.

5) 48- hour video race: This project was fun; the best part was waiting for the “Mystery Prop” to see what our film was going to be about. I was a little apprehensive about putting myself out there to my peers with the theme of my secret. Then I realized I could do something totally silly and ridiculous, in which I did. It seemed to get a good comedic response from the class, which made me happy!

6) Multi-Plane Animation: This project was really fun but I found it very challenging trying to come up with a concept. I tend to over think things sometimes and I think this project was a prime example of that.

Yes Men Blog

Yes Men Blog

I had never seen the film Yes Men before our screening last Monday, and I really enjoyed it. I think they are very clever in the way they sort of re contextualize themselves as members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the funniest part is that no one seems to get that they are a farce even with the wild presentations they give. Or it could just be the fact that all of these people at these conferences really don’t listen to what’s going being said from the guest speaker at the podium, they are just there going through the motions.

I can see how this film relates to our final assignment the recontextualization of found footage, basically that’s how the Yes Men get their foot in the door at the conferences they are invited to attend. They make their logos, letterhead and so forth look just like the World Trade Organization’s. So at first glance people truly believe they are dealing with the real WTO. This is exactly the point I think the Yes Men are trying to make, that people believe everything they see and hear without checking the facts to make sure these statements are true, I mean come on, everyone knows the media most of the time is a complete manipulation of reality.

While looking for footage for my assignment, I started seeing other videos and in doing so coming up with other ideas and concepts. Things just started to fall in place after that.

I found a really cool video of a group called The Love Police, who sort of do the same type thing as the Yes Men, they were at the royal wedding and poking fun by using sarcasm against the royal family and their better than everyone blue blood ways. One of the guys who described himself and an absurdist anarchist was walking through the streets of London that are lined with retail stores, shoppers and tourists with a megaphone giving his absurdist type commentary on society. Some of his comments were pretty spot on as far as I’m concerned. He spoke out about organized religion, consumerism, the corporate controlled media and all of the war going in the world. I think it is hilarious; it was really pissing off some of the older people in the streets. I would say their techniques were very effective, because they got wanted from the public, a reaction. Maybe making them think for themselves instead of being controlled by the mainstream media.

I really loved this project but found it difficult to fit everything I wanted to use in the piece because of the one-minute time limit. I found that coming up with the initial concept was also pretty challenging, but like I said earlier once I started finding all of the different clips everything started coming together.