3 Facts from Sonic Outlaws

There were many different situations that were pointed out in this film about Negativland that could be seen as interventions. Even just the notion of what the band had been doing for years with experimentation of remixing found content and using interesting and strange sounds could be thrown in to the idea that maybe the band itself is an intervention in to the music world. I would venture to use this as one of my three points of this post. Negativland themselves are an intervention in to the popular music culture.

In a more specific sense, I would say that the release of the U2 album that got them sued was a very clear intervention. Many people could have went in to a store to grab a record of their friend's favorite band, and not even known that this album was not actually the real work from U2, but a remixed version made by another musical group. I also wonder what the reaction of actual U2 fans was when they were browsing the stores and came across this album. It seems that the idea would spark some interest in these listeners to buy the album and check it out.

The last thing from Sonic Outlaws that I will point out as an intervention is the part where the man known in the band as the "weatherman" is playing around with the machine that he's using to pick up cellular signals. At first when i saw him trying to do this I almost had to stop from laughing, but then I realized what year this film was from and remembered they didn't have as strict of control over these signals at the time. when he did pick up a signal I didn't know whether to think that it was creepy or cool. This situation would not really be seen as an intervention until you have seen the film yourself. Obviously the 2 parties talking on the phone have no idea that they are being listened to, so their ways of thinking about the call aren't being changed at all, but if you are watching this man do what he's doing to listen in, the idea that people might still be able to do this may make you think twice about what you say over the phone.

What are films about?

Hollis Frampton, or in this case, Sarah, tells us that a film is about what appears most throughout. This declaration seems to stir up some controversy from filmmakers. Is a film really about what we see the most? Is it not about a meaning that is attempting to be portrayed over time in a piece? Is a movie like Mission Impossible about Tom Cruise, or does it have a deeper meaning? I have to disagree with Frampton on this claim that a film is about the most prominent figure that is shown. In a lot of cases films are about something, or someone that is rarely shown. A good example of this is contemporary horror films. These films are based on suspense, for the most part, and draw people in by making them wonder what will happen next, or what the monster really is or looks like.

I had an amazing amount of random mixed feelings from watching Gunvor Nelson's 1990 animated film, Natural Features. To get straight to the point of the post before i babble on, I did not see any possible way to apply Frampton's tactic of distinction to this film. There were a lot of, one could say, "recurring" images such as the brush, the pictures of faces, and the use of liquid/paint, but there was so much going on in this film that it was very hard for me to follow. At the beginning I was instantly drawn in by the amazingly out of place, and sort of random sounds that were used. I think, for probably only the second time in this class, I could not keep my eye off of the screen for more than a split second during the first parts of the film. As it went on though, it seemed to get fairly repetitive and I started to lose interest. Over all I was not really a big fan of this work. I like abstract works, but this was just insane to me.

Math Lecture

I really didn't know what to think of when Carl told us that we would be having a film maker coming in to show us a thing or two about math. When James Benning got up on the stage and started working on his two white boards I was really confused. How could this possibly relate in anyway to experimental film, or even film in general? Benning's math started off very simple and progressively got more and more complex.

There was one thing that I noticed more and more prevalently as he kept working away with his math, he really loved what he was doing. Maybe that was one of Carl's reasons for bringing Benning in to talk to us. Not only does he make films, and enjoy doing that as well, he also has a passion for mathematics. James Benning worked out math problems for nearly two hours straight before telling us what the connection between his presentation and our class/interests was. When he did announce it, I really didn't fully understand it. I think that he should have taken more time to declare how this was relevant to us as art/film students.

Tabletop Video

$3.69

My idea for the Tabletop Video was composed of 9 pennies, 9 nickels, 9 dimes, 9 quarters, and random things from my room that these coins were dropped on. My intent was to come up with some interesting sound, and possibly some interesting imagery.

By having the camera zoomed in, and using the majority of the space provided in an interesting way, I think the I accomplished what i was going for. The idea was a set-up, but the possibilities of what the coins could do were vast. The sounds that were produced were much better than those from my test run. All in all i would say that this short video was a success. Hope to see it on playback at some point!

YouTube Scavenger Hunt

When Carl mentioned that we were going to be doing a "scavenger hunt" on YouTube to relate in some way to the Alex Bag film we saw, this "director" immediately came to mind. When i went home to look for a good video to showcase I realized that these 5 facts videos that a LOT of people seem to be doing lately would be a pretty good choice. The way that the two relate is that they are both a form of revealing things about yourself that people would probably not know otherwise. Not only do they relate in this way, but they also both have clips in between these sort of confessions that let you take a break from just looking at the subject through a stationary camera, and listening to what they are saying. I think that Alex's video could be related to basically anyone who does video blogs, but not all of the people who do them are meant to be comedic. KevJumba's videos are obviously very popular, and he is know for being a sort of YouTube comedian". Alex's video was also presented in a way that proved it was an attempt to be funny. Though the subjects of the videos are very different, it seems that their approaches are similar in many ways.

You can see KevJumba's 5 Facts video here.
You can watch his other videos here.

Guest Artist: Althea Thauberger

This week we had a guest artist who came in to present some of her films and videos. She showed us "Not Afraid to Die", "songstress", "A Memory Lasts Forever", and "Treeplanters". I was not a huge fan of any of the first three, but they were O.k. I thought it was really interesting how she uses collaboration in her films. She basically sets up the shots and such while the performers come up with their own material.

Treeplanters was a very strange, yet interesting film to me. I thought that for such a simple setup and idea, that it was executed in a way that made you think about things. A slowly moving dollied camera moves first left, across a sort of barren forest area with 8-12 people sleeping in various positions. Once the camera gets past all of the people a helicopter lands and someone jumps out to wake the sleepers up. They wake up in sort of a domino fashion, but once they all are awake they suddenly stare in to the camera. This final section of the film was powerful and really woke you up.

Monday, February 11th Response

This week in discussion, we talked mostly about the idea of deadpan comedy, and how it is, and was used in films. Carl mentioned that Buster Keaton was a pioneer, or even an icon of this sort of behavior. Robert Morris' "Mirror" was not really a favorite of mine. The idea was kind of cool I thought, but it just wasn't executed in the right way. Over all i thought that it was pretty boring. Hollis Frampton's "Lemon" was not exactly the most intense film either, but i thought it was an interesting one. The way he used the light to engulf, and then make the lemon in to a sillhouette was very cool i thought. The one that caught me off guard most was Wolukau's "A Short Film About Tate Modern". I had a few issues with this one. First off, i could barely read the words that came up fast enough. Once the words finally stopped, the shot that came after was very obscure, and i really wasn't able to tell exactly what happened. I don't know if this is what the artist was shooting for or not, but if it was they did a good job.