Light Observation 3

My third, and final, light observation was the group working together and figuring out, with the light meter, the lighting for each shot, before they were taken. During one of the shoots, during the interior photo session, we had to make sure we were close enough to a light for the specific shot we were trying to get, so that we had room for the normal looking shot, the overexposed shot and the underexposed shot. That instance was the only time, I believe, that we experienced that issue. The other photos shoots didn’t give us that issue and each time it took a few minute to figure out the lighting for each image.

Light observation 2

Another observation I had made during the course of this project, is that timing is everything. I mentioned in my blog about my first observation about coincidences with the weather. One example, is that one of the days we were planning on taking photos, started as a good day for it, but it ending up raining, so we had to resort to taking interior photos. Also, a couple of days later we all met at about 9:30 in the morning and were trying to figure out how to work with the light. But, all in all, a perfect moment was when we came across someone who was meditating while working on our shots and he had allowed us to photograph him.

Light obseravtion 1

One observation I made, about lighting, while doing this project is how much it takes to make sure that, for exterior shots, the lighting at a specific moment works for a photo, not just footage. Depending on the time of day, someone decides to go and film, or take a photo, I had to make sure it worked with the photos I wanted to take. Sometimes the weather does not want to work with you, and sometimes it does. Also, sometimes  there are the weird coincidences in which the day you plan to shoot, the lighting seems to be perfect, but it changes once you are ready to get your photos or footage.

Absolute

While reading, I enjoyed the comparison of film and music within the article. Both can be elegantly composed as a piece of art, though usually with film we have a visual to go with the sounds, whereas with music we have just the sound. My reaction to that section is the same as to my reaction for the second part of our soundscape project, it is all about the imagination aspect, where I tend to mentally compose a story in relation to sounds I hear throughout reality, as I feel occurs with others. What also caught my attention, in the article, is the connection of Avant-garde and experimental to politics and the military, which had never occurred to me before.

Presentation #1

 I had learned quite a bit from Natalie’s presentation. I didn’t know who Jonas Mekas was before her presentation. I had gotten to learn about him not only as a filmmaker, but as a person. I thought she presented the material very well and I enjoyed her power point and how she had woven the video clips inside. I also enjoyed how her power point had gone from slide to slide. Instead of the unusual slide transition, it felt as though I was watching an episode of history series on tv. She also seemed to have a clear understanding of the material to which she had presented. Through her presentation, I felt that I had gotten familiar with Mekas’s style as a filmmaker and I had found it very unique.

Sound Response

What I learned from this project is that it takes more that visuals to tell a story in film, and not only that, a visual is not always needed. By doing this part of the project, I was able to mentally create the visuals from what my group and I put together. I had a similar feeling to working on this, that I do when I read a book, or listen to a song. It gave me a glance of the pictures in my mind.

For me, personally, in my day to day life, when I hear a collection of sounds and I do not know their sources, I try to make stories revolving around them. To use an example of, let’s say, a police siren, it can go from pure assumptions, such as someone getting pulled over by the police, or it be some form of child-like fantasies, such as maybe there was a bank robbery and there is about to be a high speed car chase.

That is how it was, for me, with this project. Even though my group and I already knew our story before we started putting our sounds together, it took that part of the creative aspect of my mind and allowed the visualization to happen as we were putting it together. As we were going along, I would sometimes listen to what we have and pretend to be someone who did not know the story and figure it out along the way. Every time, I felt our soundscape got closer and closer to the story and themes we were trying to portray with the sounds that we had available, from the groups from the first part of the project. I feel that the sounds we had and the story we had gotten worked really well together.

Sound Experience

                With recording the sound, for this project, it started with me taking a few moments to think of possible sounds my group could get. I thought of some and they were incorporated in the collection of sounds, whereas others we got on the spot. But, during the time my group was out listening to the world, the most interesting (and dangerous) part of it, in my opinion, was when we were at the Wildlife Preserve and we came across a snake, by the lake, and then, from a more humorous aspect, the obvious sound of someone smoking pot within the same area.

Synesthesia

With synesthesia, I recall hearing about it years ago. I had come across article segments about artists, specifically musicians, that have it, but did not look into it any further. It wasn’t until we talked about it in class that I learned about it in detail and how it works. One music artist, that has emerged in recent years, that I had read about that has a form of it is British singer, Charli XCX. She can see sounds as colors and has stated that "I see music in colours. I love music that's black, pink, purple or red - but I hate music that's green, yellow or brown."* After talking about the condition in class, I had not only recalled the reading about Charli XCX and her sound to color synesthesia. But, it had occurred to me that I may have it myself. It isn’t letters, words, or numbers in color, but for as long as I can remember, I have seen letters and numbers of having their own gender. Numbers, such as 1, 2 and 3, are male and numbers, such as 4, 8 and 9, being female. As for letters, the letter ‘A’ is female and the letter ‘B’ is male. It is something started looking into after class.

*Savage, Mark. "Charli XCX: Pop, punk and synaesthesia." BBC News. 12 December 2013. Web.