Being obvious

A lot of Dan's comments centered on the need for emotionally punctuating/emphasizing certain events. To me, emphasis means spending more time on something, making the idea or emotion more apparent. It may mean blocking something differently. I'm not sure it means trying to get a more emotional performance from Ben.

This emphasis problem also relates to the codex video. Last year when Dan first created the codex AUDIO we came to the conclusion that his first version was too arty. His second version solved the problem more literally: it wasn't a stylized composition of collaged words—it was literally a collage of words. I think I fell into the same trap with the codex video. I had this whole backstory in my mind about the video: Ben's figured out a way to composite RGB guns to create layered images. He goes through the codex audio, transcribes the text, and then burns the type into videotape using the RGB guns which are always going in and out of focus. The problem is, the text doesn't look like a collage of images.

It's interesting that Dan and I automatically and intuitively jumped to a certain way of thinking. We both wanted to go beyond the obvious. We wanted to take the idea of collage, but reconfigure it. But for this kind of piece, it makes more sense to do the obvious. The pieces don't have to carry the film. They are part of a larger performance. The RGB gun idea is an interesting one that exhibits an understanding of the medium. But for what we're doing, it's too subtle, too obtuse. I think we've both instinctively learned restraint but for this kind of thing, we just need to be blatant.