The Yes Men

The Yes Men movie was pretty different.  They have a real way with words. I cannot say it was my favorite movie to watch, but I suppose that their intentions were good.  While watching it they even made me angry for how offensive to the people they were being and talking to them like they were more superior to them even though that it was all an act.  I found that this documentary related to our found footage project because of their culture jamming nature.  For our found footage piece I found that this assignment is similar to these guys since we had to find a whole new meaning for what we wanted to portray.   We had to find our own special ways in order to twist words and take them out of context to make either a funny or serious message.  I preferred funny.  What the Yes Men did was pretty interesting and kind of amusing.  I was entertained by watching the people’s faces at what these guys were saying and how they were trying to say it.  I just remember seeing the face of one lady in the crowd whose jaw was left wide open because she was so bewildered by the current discussion.  It is amazing how you can twist words or even concepts around in order to make them mean something totally different.  These guys were able to do that, especially in a pretty offensive way.  I have to say though it is pretty fun taking something out of context and making it mean something totally different.  I liked being able to take certain clips for this project and pair them with others in order for them to sound, just wrong.  Especially since it was taking clips from kid shows and making them sound suggestive or to just point out something that was already pretty suggestive.  I mean, suggestive lines from a kid show, at least being older now is amusing to point out and get people’s attention.

That is what it seemed like the Yes Men were doing. They brought up certain topics in such a unique way that it got people’s attention. It pissed them off and some even had to leave the situation.  I think it could be looked at as kind of creative that 2 guys would have such a way of making people angry just to get their attention and act on the situation.

My Favorite 6x1 Project

            It is safe for me to say that I have loved every single one of the projects assigned in this class.  However, I think that my favorite project that I have done in 6x1 was probably and surprisingly the Bolex Shoot.  I think that this assignment was my favorite was because I learned the most with it and to make it even more special I learned everything on my own and without any help from my classmates.  I learned the most hands on film stuff more in this project than I have ever done in any other one of my film studies classes. And since I want to be a cinematographer I love any chance I get to learn about cameras.  It does not matter which one.  Throughout the blogs I have mentioned that I love every opportunity I get to mess with real film.  It feels more authentic I guess…if that’s what you can call it.  I got to set up the shoot on my own, and I got to have some fun with my group members from my 495 class.  Just that day alone was a lot of fun.  The shooting part itself went a lot better than I thought it would.  I learned how to load the camera by myself and learned how to operate it by myself.  It took me a while but I think I got the hang of it for the most part and would be willing to shoot on one again.  Yes I wanted to throw a fit when I found that the film did not come out the way it was supposed to and the entire project really stressed me out overall, but I feel like I walked away with a lot of good material.  I have always wanted to learn how to process film too.  I was able to do that on my own as well.  Ok maybe I would have liked someone to have been in there with me because I am afraid of the dark.  Yeah the red light was in there but that kind of made it a little scarier and the lights in there almost looked like human figures.  Other than that I am glad that I got the opportunity.  At first, I would have thought that since this project probably stressed me out the most it would be my least favorite but I guess I would rather learn something with some added stress than work on a project that just bored me. 

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.