Mystery Workshop

I guess even though most people probably new about the mystery workshop, I missed the memo and it was still a mystery to me.  What? We get to build a fort in class? How cool is that?  It kind of reminded me of my brother and I and how we used to make forts out of blankets and bed sheets all of the time and then have sleepovers with our friends and we would ‘camp out’ in the fort we had made.  It was pretty cool that instead of listening to lectures or taking tests or giving a power point presentation we got to eat junk food and build a fort out of blankets, bed sheets, and C stands.  Then we got to eat more junk food as a reward for building a cool fort that was just big enough to fit our whole class inside.  It was nice not having anything to worry about except for building the fort within twenty minutes.  After building the fort, watching our films on a white bed sheet was really neat.  It was a really cool way to look at and discuss everybody’s projects.  I loved how such projected images only needed a bed sheet for pretty decent viewing given the materials we had to work with at the time.  I have to say though after a while I could not help but to get a little squirmy due to such tight conditions.  It got more and more difficult to move and figure out how to sit, but that is all the fun of it too. I love how we had to read and learn about something and then we get to actually apply it in real life.  I mean, we had to read an article about what a rough theater was and then to get a better idea and feel for what a rough theater is, we build one in class together.   That is pretty awesome.  I loved being given the opportunity to apply such knowledge.  It was a really good thing that there were a couple of cameras going around the room so some documentation was able to be made for the fun that we had that night.  Now if I get on Facebook I can look at the stuff we did anytime I want to. Ok and yes part of it is because that means more pictures for me to be tagged in on Facebook too.

Bolexness

The bolex shoot was a lot of fun.  A little stressful but it was fun.  I was glad that I got the chance to learn how to load the camera with real actual film and to figure out how to make sure everything was in place so that I could properly feed the film through the camera.  If I had to be brutally honest, I would say especially knowing myself that I was kind of happy that I was able to work on this project on my own and without a group.  I know that when it comes to group projects I am on the quiet side and I would make sure I would help out wherever needed, but I know that I would not be the one learning how to use the bolex.  The most I would probably do with the bolex would have probably just been watching someone else load it, wind it, and shoot with it.  Since I was working by myself I had to choice but to keep control of my own project.  I kind of laugh at myself for having to read each of the articles on the bolex over and over and a million times again to make sure I, at least, halfway knew what I was doing.  I am really glad that April and Derek were able to help me out.  We had a lot of fun shooting at Hugh Macree Park.  It was a really neat experience and I would like to do it again if I ever could.  I wanted to do just a quick run through using my digital camera just to make sure we would get to 56 minutes and have everything look all right.  I was pretty hesitant at pressing the record button on the bolex since I knew I would only get one take.  Having just one take is a tad intimidating.  Using the bolex has increased my love for using real film even though it is definitely not as easy as just turning on a digital video camera and just hitting the record button.  I think one day though it will feel almost as easy.  Now the processing is a whole different story.  That is when the real moment of truth will come out and will determine how well things really went.  I really hope that it comes out properly and that some crazy thing did not go wrong with the film.

Rough Theater

My rough theater is a home-made outdoor theater in one’s backyard.  Either that or a screen set up in the neighbor’s garage.  I love being outside and I love movies so combining the two would be ideal.  I would personally love going to outdoor movie theaters more than a regular indoors movie theater.  There is a lot more freedom outside.  I can talk to whoever I’m watching the movie with as much as I want and no one will tell me I need to be quiet.  Kids can run around the playground and swing on the swings.  It is really nice to just sit in a lawn chair and look at a giant big screen that was put out in the middle of a big giant field.  I would love to spend hot summer nights watching movies on a big sheet of cloth and the cloth would be held together by a wooden frame that looked half-way reliable.  Anyone would be welcome to come over.  Anyone would be able to come and go as they please.  No one would be told to just sit down and be quiet.  A table of drinks and popcorn bags would be ready for use as long as everything would not be consumed too quickly.  The outdoor theater would just be more like a hang out place more than anything.  No sophistication, no uppity type vibes, just fun and simplicity of socializing eating food and drinking (drinks as far as soda or alcoholic beverages, whatever your preference).  Brook’s article of the rough theater makes a point of saying that a rough theater wants to prevent that sophisticated feel to it. Instead, he describes a place that is more along the lines of gritty, dirty, and not the best of quality, but it is more than likely to be a lot more fun and personal than a giant rich looking theater.  A rough theater would seem to be more comforting.  You can portray whichever attitude you would like such as the crazy partier or the wild kid and not have to feel bad about it.  No one judges you on how you dress or what your status is.  I very much just like and appreciate the simplicity of things which is why my idea of a rough theater is completely casual and fun.  There would not really be anything special to it. 

Molotov and the Ecstasy of Influence Response

The Molotov reading was very interesting.  I am really not good when it comes to all that copyright politics stuff.  I may sound ignorant when I say it, but it did not seem like it was that big of a deal just to see if you can get permission to make a painting of a piece of art that was originally created by someone else.  I kind of thought that the author who was telling their story was making a big deal out of something that was not that big of a deal.  Sure, the author was putting his or her own spin on the piece of art but it was still originally the idea of someone else. Yes, art should not have any limits but it still gets very difficult to decide who is in the wrong and who is in the right when someone wants to take another person’s idea.  The tone I got from this author was kind of negative and a little pompous.  Again, I could be wrong but that is just the vibe that I got.   I mean, if you are that nervous about getting involved in copyright issues then do what the original artist’s lawyer requests you should do.  After all, they worked hard for that piece and getting your art to be recognized is not an easy thing to do, so credit should be given to wherever the credit is due.

This same idea of plagiarism falls in line with “The Ecstasy of influence” article.  Plagiarism is a very scary word to me.  Since the topic of this article is plagiarism, it reminds me of how paranoid I get whenever I have to turn in a paper for one of my classes.  So much is at stake like the grade you will receive, how much the paper will affect your overall average, and last but not least, making sure that the information, or ideas, included in your paper is 100% yours.  The professors scare you so much whenever they say that one word.  It is scary that whether or not you meant to plagiarize you still get penalized for it. There are no re-dos and regardless of your intentions the fact that you still plagiarized is a nasty concept.  The article points out that it is ok to be influenced but you still must watch what you claim as your idea.  Influences still have their own ways of leading to new and fresh original ideas.

Beat Stretch

I would definitely say that the beat stretch was very soothing.  It would be something perfect to fall asleep to but other than that I really do not think it is something that I’d like to listen to on my own.  The music was beautiful but I just felt like it was the same thing over and over and over again for a solid hour.  When I first started listening to it, I wondered if the music was even playing since it started out so quietly.  Personally, since I like songs that are fast paced it is hard for me to have interest in slower moving pieces of music.  Another opinion that I have about the beat stretch is that I thought that it sounded quite eery.  It sounded a little dark and spooky in a way.  It kind of made me think of being stuck in a dark forest with tall trees and the silence of the forest was constantly being interrupted by the sounds of creepy animals.  This is, at least, what stuck out to me the most.  I guess now if I think about it, the music sounds a little somewhat spooky, yet I think it to be quite soothing and relaxing.  The day I listened to it, I had just got back from Connecticut for the week.  I was feeling pretty stressed out from all of the projects, papers, and tests that I know are coming up.  Trying to get everything together before the end of your last semester is pretty challenging.  Anyway, before I go off on a tangent, listening to the beat stretch almost made me forget about all of the things that I have going on and to just sit down, slow down and breathe.  After a long yet short week of constantly being somewhere and going all the time, just sitting down and listening to a classical piece of music was kind of nice.  The assignment required us to not do anything while listening to the music.  I guess I am glad that I was pretty much assigned to chill out and listen to music for a good long while.  Not my first choice of music, but still comforting and soothing nonetheless.  I really do not listen to classical music all that much but I guess when I am forced to listen to this genre, it is kind of nice to listen to.