Watching videos in class today was good. It gave me a lot of ideas for what I'm working on now. First, the sound attack scene problem. For the past week I've hated watching it. It's a slow push in to the spinner cross-cutting with a slow push in to the radio. I think I don't like it because of the way the scene telegraphs emotion. You watch it and go "oh, I'm supposed to think something scary/mysterious is happening." Of course, it's not surprising since my main influence for the scene was Raiders of the Lost Ark (slow push in to idol at beginning of the movie) and Jurassic Park II (push in to attacking dinosaur). But the more I see it the more it drives me nuts. When I get a chance I think I'll reshoot it with an unmoving camera. I've been thinking a lot about camera movement. I remember Harakiri--there was a lot of camera movement but most of it was just dollying through hallways and stuff. And watching David Lynch's Rabbits was good today. It was just one long wide shot. Even his Dumbland videos were absolutely still in portions--technically, "dead" shots.
The rabbits also reminded me of Donnie Darko. I guess there is just something sinister about rabbits. It gave me the idea that maybe somewhere in our film we need to have a giant animal.
Then I was thinking about anachronisms. I forget why it came up but we were talking about production design and the ambiguous universes of David Lynch and Tim Burton. It made me think that I should be more ambiguous with our universe. Right now the film looks mid-century but maybe I should throw in some things to mix it up a bit. The hard part is integrating the items so they don't look like bad production design. I would love to throw in some colorful IKEA items and a 70's GTO and not have them look stupid.
That Maya Deren documentary gave me an idea. I had already planned on having Ben create the 'rosetta stone' on the floor (on paper). Now I think I'll have him draw literally on the cement floor. I like the ritualistic and artistic connotations.
Finally, music. I've been editing to Anna and the King (I had it laying around) and Organic from Koyaaniaqatsi. They both work pretty well, but Anna and the King evokes a certain sentiment so clearly that it closes off other potential readings and emotions. So maybe I'll try editing to some other pieces.
6 comments:
Yeah, that was a good class wasn't it. Dumbland and Rabbits, though very different on the surface, somehow really go together. They both make great use of pauses and stillness, I agree. Interesting sense of timing. I would say David Lynch differs from the visual artist-turned-filmmaker model in that sense, the sense of timing maybe.
Actually don't you think that the pauses and stillness come right out of the visual arts? It's the constant movement and action that seems more like traditional film to me...
i see what you mean. i was thinking that a good sense of timing is an attribute of a filmmaker. to me it's like a willingness to let things unfold, or patience. the tempo might be slow, but it can still be a driving tempo. the stillness actually foregrounded the tempo for me. the lynch stuff was groovy and musical, i thought.
Yes, and as you know, the goal of 20th century abstract film was to structure images in time like music.
ok, i think i see the connection, because those guys (20th c. abstract filmmakers) always had more in common with modernist painters than with hollywood?
Yeah, remember that 'music envy' idea you had? Abstract filmmakers jealous of the purity and abstract nature of music.
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