Goals 2009

Hazel,

I love the various story ideas. What is good about the Music Video format is that you can really focus on the image, your camera work and editing. It also gives you extensive artistic freedom since anything goes in that format. Narrative film is getting to that point, too, but music videos and experimental work really lets you explore the fringe of composition and design.

I am intrigued by the contrast of your artistic goal and the first proposal, "Beauty". You suggest that story boarding and total planning is what will get you a very visually beautiful piece. However, you suggest that the girl in your music video "tries so hard to be cool", afraid to go with her own beauty. I would argue that beauty can sometimes come without planning. Not that you would want to enter into a narrative piece with no idea of what you are shooting. But much of my own sense of style with the camera has come from just playing with the camera and seeing where it takes me. Kind of like a painter who lets the paint sometimes determine how the painting will end up.

If you have yet just allowed yourself to take a camera, video or still, and just take a lot of footage of everything. do it. It is liberating and it leads to you developing a personal style.

Regarding your project ideas, I am most intrigued by the first and last ideas. The third one could be fun, but it is such a common style that you might find yourself just trying to recreate and exisiting genre.

If you want to make a crisp professional piece, audio and video, i might suggest one scene, mostly dialogue, two people. It is the easist to control and might give you the most satisfying results. The dialogue can be very intense, too.

-JoE

Hiya Hazel,
Great ideas - any of them would be fun to see you develop, but I think the first, second, and fourth ideas would allow you to explore/pursue your artistic goals. If you haven't already watched MAY/Cause by a 2007 student, Andrew Katz, I'd encourage you to do that (you can find it under Library, Videos, FF07). Here's a link to Andrew's blog, which also shows you how he scripted and then story boarded his ideas using photography:
http://akatzica.blogspot.com/

How would you make idea #2 unique/engaging and not just a diary of a particular day?

Are you leaning toward a particular idea? I love the idea of taking something your dad made when he wasn't much older than you and lending a new twist to it.

Would love to hear what you're thinking now that you've had some time to think more about it!

You can always email me at emishki(at)gmail.com -- I'd love to hear from you!

erin

i'm currently finishing a piece that I did for another one of my dad's songs and that I shot with a Bolex. So I'm not sure I want to make another music video. Although i will probably use my dads music in the film, i am interested in doing more of a narrative piece. The only problem is, I don't have a very solid idea for one. I think that i try to think to big and then i get overwhelmed. I have a hard time just simplyfying something, or being satisfied with not having a solid idea. I feel like it has to be perfect the first time, which obviously isn't very realistic.
I'm still interested in doing something related to idea #4 because although I am not an adult having midlife crisis, sometimes I feel as though i have already lost so many opportunities and wish that i could have done more things and feel like its too late to start something new now. I feel like I can relate to this type of character because it is one of my worst fears that I will end up that way as an adult. On this same topic, I am also interested in hearing stories from adults about their childhood and hearing their reflections on life. Another idea would be to make some type of documentary using interviews with different adults, or some combination of narrative and documentary. I'm not really sure.
As you can see, I'm still pretty indecisive, but I have been thinking a lot about what I want to do. Basically the themes that keep coming up are: youth, growing up, looking to the future, reflecting back, regret, personal growth, fear of getting old.

The idea of interviewing people about their life experiences and then incorporating that into a piece, whether doc, narrative, or both, is very interesting. Very much in the vain of anna deavere smith, the playwright who interviews people and then creates stage plays from the responses. I definitely want you to explore this.

What would be the questions you would ask? Take some gear out over the break and start some of these interviews. They could even be just sound interviews to see what kind of stuff you come up with. Just the zoom and a mic.

Hi Hazel,
I totally understand feeling overwhelmed and not knowing where to start. Your ideas are great! I think you just need to dive in and start coming up with questions to ask and then start recording. Once you have material to work with, you can play and see what comes out of it.

Some resources...
For interview tips:
http://www.transom.org/tools/recording_interviewing/200101.basics.jallison.html
Transom is a FANTASTIC resource, focused mostly on audio makers, but most of the concepts/resources transfer over to film. There's even a really great interview with the famous film sound designer, Walter Murch, that you might find inspiring.

Also.... Karen Michel, who is a radio veteran, recently produced a piece that might be of interest to you where she asked people on the street the same three questions ("What do you live for? What would you die for? What would you kill for?"). This might be an approach you'd want to think about using - narrowing your focus to just a few questions and asking them of everyone you talk to. Go to this link and then scroll down to the very bottom of the page to have a listen:

http://thirdcoastfestival.org/audio_library_2008.asp

I would love to help you think through questions or could answer whatever audio questions you might have. I know you'll come up with something great. Have fun in class tomorrow.

erin