Maya Deren - Tristan and Ashley

I thought that Tristan and Ashley did a great job of representing Maya Deren in a way that we, as film students who have all seen and studied her, have not heard before. One thing I didn't know that I learned was that she traveled to Haiti and made a film. One of my favorite Maya Deren films is At Land, so I am happy they discussed and showed it.

Harry Smith - Matt and Kyle

After this presentation, I could really get a sense of who Harry Smith is and his personality. I definitely believe that his personality shines through his films. I am truly amazed by his precision with painting and directly manipulating the film. I had to do that project in my 6 x 1 class, and I truly cannot understand how he is so precise.

Jonas Mekas - Lily and Rory

Before this presentation, I was not familiar with Jonas Mekas at all and Lily and Rory did an amazing job of changing that for me. He has done so much for film and he's such an important figure that it really was difficult to fit all of that in a 20 minute time period. My favorite part of the presentation was learning about and actually seeing some of the 365 Day Project. I know everyone can agree with me that "to be normal is a disaster" is such an iconic quote from that project.

Light Observation #2

The pot of boiling water prepares for the angel hair noodles I am about to cook. The microwave light is shining down on the water. I notice bubbles beginning to form at the bottom of the pot, and I see that every single bubble has a tiny reflection of the microwave light in the middle. The studio light above me acts as a soft spotlight, as if I’m hosting a cooking show. I look down at my feet and I see two different shadows of myself overlapping each other, one from the microwave light and the other from the studio light. The shadow is dark where they overlap, yet very faint where they are separated.

Light Observation #1

I’m sitting at my dinner table and I only have the studio lights in the kitchen turned on. My shadow while I sit and type is casted on the wall and the blinds next to me. There’s a high contrast between my shadow and the white wall, but the hard lines diffuse as the shadow leaks onto the blinds. The light illuminates the top of the faucet and the handle on the microwave. My dogs are standing beside each other and their shadows are exaggerated onto the floor. The contrast between the big pit bull shadow and the tiny chiweenie shadow is amusing.

Sound Design

Through assignment 1B, I learned how important sound design is to evoke certain emotions. You don't even need an image in order to convey something, which is something that I never thought about before. I also learned that you can make a soundscape with literally any sounds, because you can create so many different variations of each sound in Premier using something like reverb or any of the many audio filters. While editing the sounds together with my partner, I was amazed at how much you can do with them. This project taught me a lot about how to put sounds together and how to create a sense of fear through sound!