VIII

The Saturday shoot went very well. It was cloudy for the entire shoot and didn’t begin to rain until we were all wrapped. I was even surprised we got done on time at 4 pm without Andre. We followed the shooting schedule pretty closely and helped each other out.

For the shoot I operated the dolly (wheelchair). It was my first time doing that. It was fun. I had to work on pacing and walking backwards.

Our long take shot was of Timmy starting at Deloach and walking towards the camera along the “mini Chancellor’s Walk” between the library and Kennen. As he walked random people would come up to him and change his costume or pelt him with water balloons or tennis balls, oh yeah and there was a monkey. We took the whole hour and fifteen minutes to set up props and block out the action. Then in the last minute we shot the thing. After the four or five practices, we had a good single take.

After the shoot I took the camera to the black box to process. I’m glad I got to do this because I don’t know if I will ever again, so I’m glad I got to do it once. Andy and his group were finishing processing before I got to the room. He stuck around and walked me through the process. Working in the dark was hard because we only had the one red safe light and it doesn’t have much of a range. I dunked the film in the developer and he images began to appear. I thought it was cool how I could watch the film develop from seemingly nothing. After fixing the film I rinsed the strip a few times and then took a look at the frames. They really developed well; the images were nice and sharp. I could make out the building and Timmy.

I helped Barrett set up the digital camera for the video transfer and then went out to help Group 3. Theirs was simpler and needed less people. After that we came in and loaded the projector and saw our film come to life. It looked amazing. This was the first time I have shot on film so projecting it was a fun experience. The take did cut off before we wanted but that’s fine because what we have works. We watched each group as they projected theirs and each one looked cool. I can’t wait until we finish and polish them up in Final Cut.

VII

There are a number of ways to create a film without the use of a camera, we have used a few in class. But one of the main ways is through digital or computer means. PhotoShop or AfterEffects allow an artist to tell a story without a camera. Also a scanner isn’t a camera in the sense that it looks at an object line by line and then recreates each line into a picture, instead of simply taking in the entire image at once.

As far as story, I feel I could tell a normal story in a different way with cameraless filmmaking or if I’m feeling really clever make a story up surrounding the reason to make a film without a camera. I am leaning toward making an animation of a man who can change forms based on his environment.

For example: the man is walking in the hot sun, the world melts and he swims in the liquid. To move around better he grows fins. He swims deeper until he reaches the bottom of the “ocean” and begins falling through the air. His fins turn into wings and he grows feathers. He lands in a tree and sleeps. A blizzard comes in and to keep warm the man grows a thick coat of fur. Snow sticks to the fur and he becomes a giant snowball and rolls down a mountain growing larger and larger. He crashes at the bottom and the sun comes out melting the snow creating a pond. The fury man walks out of the water onto the land, now to hot under the sun he sheds the fur and walks off.

It sounds like a long process but I feel each part will only be a few seconds long. Only long enough to recognize what he’s doing and then move on to the next step in the sequence. I think it’s a simple story with some interesting twists. And depending on the mystery prop maybe something new can be added to the story to make it even more crazy and fun.

I’m looking forward to this project and a way to expand my filmmaking repertoire. I think I will use a combination of techniques through scanning textures and images to using computer animation software like AfterEffects. I also feel sound will play an important role in portraying how the character is feeling and the environments he’s passing through.

VI

Cameraless filmmaking has been a fun experience. It’s a new way to use old footage, by scratching or painting on it, and to use new footage, with rayo- and photograms. It was interesting in that I was making a film without ever seeing what it truly looked like projected. Once we finally got the projector and camera set up to transfer the film to video I got to see my creation unfold. I was surprised by how cool the film looked projected and by the animations that came to life. The barrage of colors and textures was really interesting. I enjoyed the twisted film I had placed over my filmstrip for the photogram. The spiral on the film took up about twenty frames, and this could be clearly seen as the film’s original picture corkscrewed around itself. Another surprise came when the blackleader I used to scratch shapes and my animation into was projected. The 16mm film used two frames per image, instead of one frame to one image. When projected every other frame was either of the man’s head or of his feet. It created a strange flicker effect. The bleached portions were probably the strangest sequences of the film. The bleach was applied to the inked/oiled portions of the film. This application muted the colors and changed some of the colors to strange shades of themselves.

I feel we followed the theme of "earth, wind, fire, and water" well. Sheena created the earth and wind and I did the fire and water. I used a lot of reds and blues of course but I made each wavy and fluid because each of these elements flows. I wanted lots of movement and to create a “flowing” sensation. I liked how the rayo/photograms came out, and overall I enjoyed making and viewing the film.

If I could change anything I would have worked on the magazine transfer more. The magazine strips I used were done hastily and not given enough time to stick to the filmstrip. I think when we tried to project some of the magazine strips slipped and scrunched up, almost jamming the projector. I also would have tried to keep the perforations and the enamel side of the filmstrip consistently on the same side. When we were finished compiling our one minute reel, we realized some of the strips were backwards or flipped so we had to take the time then to correct them. But this was a learning experience and I feel we fixed our mistakes well and have a good film to show for it.