The kindest cut


So, I finally decided to get a haircut. My hair's been a medium long for a while now. Sorta Ashton Kutcher-esque (when he had longer hair). Now it's sorta back to being Ewan McGregory (prior to his Star Wars hair). Got the faux-hawk thang back. Or bed-head. Or whatever.

MySpace is cool. I don't care if it's uber trendy. It's good times. I even found out that someone from TheForum is in Chicago and we'll probably meet up for a drink soon. Good times.


So, the semester is officially over for me today. I handed in my final two films, possibly my final two *films* ever, or ever at Columbia. Seeing my 16mm *color* film sort of made me reasses my feelings about digital video versus film. Then I think about how much work and hassle it was, and I'm not sure if the look of the film is worth it. Especially since there are filters to emulate that look. Not to mention the prices of motion picture film and cameras.

To that end, I'll have two films online very soon (within the next 7 days).

1.) Touch - a quick, 2min 30sec short I did with Pat and Stu. 16mm b&w negative film. Unfortunately, the Bolex I had had a light leak and there's an annoying white strip running along the right of frame the entire time. My cut I handed in to my teacher will probably be different than the version I put online, since I'm thinking of trying something to get rid of that... Anyway, this film wasn't entirely successful. Mostly because the idea was just a bit too complex for us to do with the resources we had. If I had someone good with sfx around, it would have been a lot cooler. As it is now... well.. you'll see.

This one's a little Emulsiony..

2.) The Stain of the Smell of Another Woman - I really liked how this turned out. The 16mm color film, deliberately ovexposed about 1 stop, looks a lot like the stock used in The Brown Bunny. The end of this short got a lot more abstract that the original script had it. This mostly came about during editing. One of the good things about film vs video that I will admit, is that film often has a lot of cool 'artifacts' as the film roll ends and light floods the gate, and I decided to use those artifacts in this film, instead of disregarding them. I'd put this up right away since I'm kind of excited about it. However, I'm going to re-record the dialogue since the original recording is a little too low on volume, and difficult to hear.

The only complaint I have about this film is that it was once again shot inside my apartment. I am very aware that all my films are starting to look alike. The reason I shoot so often in my apartment is because I like being able to control every aspect of a shoot, and if I'm shooting in a place I own (or at least pay the rent), then I know I can have as many hours that I need to shoot and get sound and whatnot. No rushing to make sure the owner doesn't get irritated with a film shooting in their home.

The drawback is that.. it gets really old, really fast.

If Pat, Stu and I are able to get Echoes off the ground this summer like we fully intend to, then things will be better. There are many different locations for that.

I am soooo tired now.
- posted by Brendan @ 6:41 PM 0 comments

 
Confliction
Confused and tired. My joints hurt. I don't know what I'm doing. Like I've forgotten how to ride a bike.

No radar.
- posted by Brendan @ 7:40 PM 0 comments