Final Blog Post

Audio and Video Works:
1a. Listening Experiment: "Easy Listening"
1b. Listening Experiment Song: "Easy Listening (song version)"

2. Chroma Key: "Queen Kong"

3. Animated GIF: "I'm Finished"

"I'm finished." (2013)

by Mike Zeile

1920x1080

Animated GIF

A simplistic GIF (cinemagraph) taken from the final scene of the film There Will Be Blood (2007). In terms of context, this scene shows the aftermath of a once powerful oil tycoon, Daniel Plainview, in the early 1900s who has just murdered his rival with nothing but a bowling pin. Once he's done beating his rival to a pulp he takes one last breath and utters, "I'm finished."

4. Found Footage: "Forward Motion"

5. Midterm Self-Portrait: "Me"

6. Multi-Channel: "Insomnia Arm Wrestling"

7. Sixty Second Shot: "Retrace Your Steps"

8. Final Project: "Dismal Dislocation"

Wiki Entries:

1. I'm Not the Girl Who Misses Much (1986) by Pipilotti Rist

2. Isabella Rossellini (2005) by Robert Wilson

3. Vivre Sa Vie (Godard, 1962) 2010's

Tech Demo 4/15/13

Film Transitions

Transitions made a huge impact on silent cinema in the 1920's because it was a major creative tool considering there was no sound. Once the silent era ended and the sound era began Hollywood utilized the "cut" most often and not until the French New Wave (60's) was the film transition morphed into a more conscious, artistic aspect of filmmaking. Nowadays the film transition has many forms including the "morph" effect that became available when computer generated imagery was invented.

Common transitions:
-Cut (straight cut, contrast cut, L cut, match cut, jump cut)
-Fade in/out (dissolve)
-Wipe (iris wipe)
-Morph

Classic examples of film transitions

Harmony Korine

Date and place of birth: January 4th, 1973 in Bolinas, California (raised in Nashville, Tennessee)

Current residence: Nashville, Tennessee

Current workplace: Lived and worked in New York for many years, now lives in Nashville and works (directing films) all over the place, mostly within the United States

Education: Hillsboro Highschool, briefly studied Dramatic Writing at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University

Work:

Curb Dance            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu5Lpe8z40Y
Snowballs               http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8F8K27Cr6U
Act da Fool            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUsB3S0CfKE
Gummo (feature)   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd9pyFZG-Qk
Umshini Wam        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMVNjMF1Suo

Final Project: Dismal Dirt Cheapskate (working title)

I plan for my final project to be a short video with a loose narrative. I want to express themes without dialogue as much as possible and carry out the action/narrative with some sort of structure. The first picture that came into my mind when I heard we could do anything we wanted for this project was a human rising from the earth covered in mud. I'd rather not give away the entire "plot" of my piece but it has to do with discovery and knowledge at a base level. To test my skills in the editing room I want to experiment with transitions. I'm very interested in transitions that flow with the piece. Trying to stay away from the simple jump cut will be a challenge in itself. Hopefully, if all goes well, I'll achieve  seamless fluidity throughout the entire work.

I wasn't able to attend the introduction class for the multi-channel project so my background may be a  bit uninformed. I did scan over the examples that were linked on Moodle and after reading some of the other ideas by my fellow classmates I think I've come up with a loose plan. I've decided to keep it simple when concerned with underlying meaning, yet somewhat complicated with the editing and execution. I've been very busy lately and this is causing me to become disoriented and tired. With that in mind, I want to use two screens. One will be upside down and on top of the other screen. Playing with the "multi-channel medium" I want to use a pillow that will fall back and forth between the subjects (me?) on either screen. They will both be yearning for the pillow, but can't ever seem to hold onto it. The screens will disorient themselves, twisting and turning, upside down and backwards, as the subjects fight for the pillow to be on their screen. This should work perfectly in a loop. I'm finding this hard to explain in words and that may be a good thing.

Me by Mike Zeile
56 seconds
Digital Video

In Dick Goody's article titled "The Roving Eye: Aura and the Contemporary Portrait" he states, "From our various perspectives, when we look at a portrait we are naturally wary of falsity or the staged guise." Goody describes the search for truth in portraiture quite clearly as we, the viewer, try to pick out the falsity in a [sitter's] face. I agreed for the most part with this statement, but after viewing the exhibition I found a few that stuck out to me that made me think twice. Woman gliding southeast at 70 mph on Highway 101 sometime in March 1990 (Listening to the Silence), 1992-1993/2008, Andrew Bush, photograph. ----- A dozen useless actions for grieving blondes #1, 2009, Rosemary Laing, digital photograph. These two pieces in particular seemed to defy the notion that Goody was trying to convey. In the first one listed, a candid photo of a woman driving in the 90's is an easy example of true unawareness. The woman looks to have no idea she is being photographed and her expression feels real and uncaring of who's looking in on her. The second portrait listed is more staged, but could also be considered within the realist spectrum. The pure disheartened and woeful gaze the sitter gives the viewer feels more powerful than a "staged guise". Although one is candid, while the other staged, I feel that Goody can't lump all portraiture into false truths. I've found, in these two portraits, that truth can be revealed and real emotion has been captured.