FST 302 Experimental

I LOVED the presentation on Marlon Riggs, especially because I am a huge fan of his work in general. It makes me very happy to see Riggs acknowledged, especially because of his background. Black people who are from the LGBT community are usually ignored when it comes to history or art or society in general. His work is poetic and it makes me feel like I am immersed in his world completely whenever I view a movie. I want to create art that carries as much emotion as he does, and work that seems to breathe every second that the film goes on. We need more art that carries the amount of power and tenderness that he had, and it is a shame that the world lost him at such a young age. Su Friedrich was an alright filmmaker. She is the first filmmaker we saw in class that I wasn't too big of a fan of. I felt like she could've done more with her films, either add audio that made them more poetic, and a lot of her images I felt like have been seen before. I like the idea of reflexivity...

I guess I'll start this out by saying I don't have a clue what I want to make for this project. At first I thought I did, and I've had a document of ideas saved up since the second week of school. However, as time went by, and as my hell semester got more hellish, I feel that my personality has been tweaked ever so slightly. I originally wanted to make something that was very introspective, but I realized that I don't want to be vulnerable. Especially after some personal events in my recent life, I do not want to be vulnerable at all. I don't think people deserve to see me, and I mean the actual "me" onscreen. I don't think the world has a right to see my soul and I've gotten a bit repulsed by the idea of a self portrait. But at the same time, I feel like I kind of want to play with the idea of making caricatures of myself. I want to poke fun at what others think of me and what they see me as. Most of these perceptions are negative. That's ok...

This is the first time I’ve participated in a community project as part of a class. I found it very enjoyable, especially with the steady pacing of each part of the assignment, and I’ve felt more creative than usual due to switching up different partners. It was great teaming up with classmates that showed different strengths than me, as I felt I learned a lot from observing them. I definitely learned a great deal of sound editing by working with my partner and watching her make edits. It’s given me a little more opportunity to explore with my craft, which is exactly what I want. Not only did I learn about sound mixing, but I was able to expand my cinematography skills. I’ll go ahead and admit that I haven’t used a light meter before this class. Truthfully, I forgot they even existed. I thought being able to hold the meter and use it for pictures was a great learning experience, even if it was just for a film camera. It helped me think about ISO in a different way and taught me th...

Working with film was a unique experience that I am not completely sure that I liked. It was very different from what I am used to which is digital work. I felt like the medium was more restricting but on further thought, restricting in a different way than digital. For example, you only get one try with film and have to be very careful with the way you shoot. You have to make sure your light is on par, measure distance well, and position your camera just right. Once you take your shot, that’s it, it's done forever. Film does allow for some more flexibility with in-camera effects however, as you can do double exposures and amazing blur effects that in my opinion cannot be truly replicated. I liked the grain the film provided and in my opinion it is more authentic in appearance than digital. I think it’s perceived authenticity comes from the phantom-like appearance it has. I feel like film makes everything look like a ghost, almost as if traces real life were snatched away and pre...