My Pen Pal

I finally got around to listening to My Pen Pal on the This American Life website, and the formula for the plays tended to begin with an example of a written work, possibly some passages read to the listeners, followed by a discussion of the times and happenings during the time it was written, maybe with interviews of the person who wrote it or people who knew that person. It was a pretty interesting show, although it was kind of hard to get myself to listen to it (procrastination and short attention span), but I did my best...

The Super Of 8

Coming from an independent standpoint, I really like the fact that super 8 film is really cheap and still looks better than some personal digital film devices, in my opinion. By better, I mean that it has that great film look and the same depth and color to make it so that things you shoot on it still look like a genuine film more than miniDv... Maybe I should spread out my computer editing software and my tripod and my older miniDv camera to three of my friends and then track them down someday and get everything back to film a dream I had... haha. It probably wouldn't look as good as the one in class though... oh well.

Intentional Vulnerability

I find that my own experience with intentional vulnerability stems from my forays into musicianship and trying to write songs that I feel really express something more than just words that rhyme together. Putting more of yourself into the things that you do tends to make your creative accomplishments more fulfilling, in my opinion, because you have an emotional investment involved. If your investment is successful and worthwhile, then you can feel like you’ve given a part of your self that has been accepted and you can accept yourself. This is the same in music, photography, and video-graphy, and some of the best artists put themselves into their work.

Collectively Viewing Fiction (And Then A Click Rang Out In The Room)

I haven’t had a viewfinder like the ones in class since I was a kid, and, even then, I don’t think I had nearly as much fun as I did then. It was a lot more interesting to have a narrative play along with the images that we were looking at. A few times, I put the viewfinder down and watched everybody else, intent with their stories and constantly searching for new light sources to make the 3d images even more distinct then they were.

A Camera, Obscured

All of the stories of the mechanics of a camera obscura sound like something out of a magic trick, at least to me. The believability of an image shining through a pinhole opening, through a lens or not, and creating some kind of image on the opposite wall sounds impossible. I guess I was looking forward to seeing it for the first time and judge whether or not it stands up to its legend. Needless to say, I went to the exhibit and was satisfied with the odd mechanics of the machine and the outcome it brought. The whole city street on the other side of the wall was upside down and reversed. I wanted to go outside and do a handstand and fall off the face of the planet. Odd, maybe, but a film student’s gotta dream.