mise en scene

The greatest elements of cinema & photography combined. The best definitions are found in this book:

Bordwell, David; Thompson, Kristin (2003). Film Art: An Introduction, 6th ed.. New York: McGraw-Hill.

I attended a lecture on ambiguity and multiple narrative structures and the changing nature of modern art films or some such title by David Bordwell a few years ago. It was great. I just wanted to brag here :) But it really was great.


Bordwell's blog.

last minute for all the world to see

So I guess being someone who unintentionally seems to thrive on the last minute I probably shouldn't be admitting to it here, since I am likely to use this blog as evidence of research/idea development/inspirations, just like the title suggests. I'm supposed to be selling myself here... but I appreciate honesty more, especially when it comes to creating art.
*Sidenote: Tonight on Triple J, John Safran was talking about how he can't lie. But it's not based on morals, its just because he's bad at it. Which, in a way, makes him even worse than those who lie, because he's only not doing it to protect himself... but yeah, he said it better.

Anyway, to help me work it out, the following is what I need to finish by Tuesday evening at the latest (to present in reviews for the rest of the week):

- prepare images for printing (much more time-consuming than it sounds).
- printing... in the digital darkroom, for the first time... scary.
- artist's statement.
- annotated bibliography.
- project proposal with timeline and budget.

Big things, little time. Once again, I wish I could've finalised the actual idea process earlier and I'd be right on top of all this! But I really think that's the hardest part. So I'm glad that's over. But now I have to transfer it from my brain into comprehensible writing and speaking... so I better get some sleep to recharge (I haven't yet changed the time settings for the blog; it's currently 5:45am).
*Omg... I forgot it's still daylight savings. That's one less hour of sleep :(

fine art photography defined

Fine art photography refers to photographs that are created to fulfill the creative vision of the artist. Fine art photography stands in contrast to photojournalism and commercial photography. Photojournalism is to promote an editorial point of view. Commercial photography's main focus being to sell a product or service.

The final creative reason for a fine art photograph is the photograph itself. It is not a means to another end except perhaps to please those besides the photographer who beholds it.

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In the simplest terms, I would liken a fine art photograph to a fine art painting. But we (mostly) use a camera as a paintbrush. Which is hard to sell, because everyone has a camera and ideas and what separates us from everyone else? Essentially I guess it would have to be in the drive, and actions... we've made a conscious decision to do it. What I'm doing.

gursky, crewdson, sylvester

Our Future Was Ours Darren Sylvester 2005 lightjet print, ed. 6 90 x 120cm

While I'm thinking about genius artists that I love it's time to give a shout out to one of my all time favourite photographers, Andreas Gursky. He's again someone I really admire. The thing with people like him and Gondry and all your favourite artists is that they have original ideas, incredible and beautiful, yet somehow obvious. Like, why didn't anyone do that before? But I think with things like that, work that really works, and as a result, appears simple... is just a sign of effort and maturity and quality craftsmanship. Things I really value.

This year I want my work to be more textural... more elements in the images; richer, more cinematic. A bit of Gursky but perhaps more along the lines of Gregory Crewdson... but he's probably the most extreme example of staged photgraphs... so maybe a bit more Darren Sylvester (yep I'm a suck up ;) But really... the common thread I guess is consumer culture and suburban life, which will be big themes for me this year. I like the idea of finding things as they are, such as Gursky... but in reality I don't have the time or resources ($$) to get out there and find those really incredible shots, so I'm currently thinking I'll go more with the staged style and try to create the shots I want. That obviously costs money too (what doesn't), but I can be resourceful! Hopefully...

Chicago Board of Trade II Andreas Gursky 1999 C-type Print h: 81.5 x w: 132.6 in / h: 207 x w: 336.8 cm Matthew Marks Gallery

Gursky links:
White Cube
Postmedia

Untitled (North by Northwest), Gregory Crewdson Summer, 2004, Digital C-print, 64.25 x 94.25 in.
Edition 5 of 6. Image courtesy of the artist and the Ovitz Family Collection, Los Angeles

Crewdson:
Official website
Guardian
White Cube

Humans Evolve to Break and Disappear Darren Sylvester 2005 lightjet print, ed. 6 90 x 120cm

Sylvester:
William Mora
Johnson Gallery
ABC Arts

like a rolling stone

Michel Gondry you're my hero.

I saw his clip for The Stones' Like a Rolling Stone again yesterday. It's not my favourite clip but one that's always intrigued me. When I started getting into film and editing a couple of years ago I was under the impression that it was created using two techniques:

- 'Bullet Time' from The Matrix; a series of still frames taken simulaneously, then played in sequence with a slower (generally) frame rate for film.
- Again, only still frames, morphed together.

When I watched it again yesterday, I realised I was only scraping the surface:

- The shots of the Stones, while confusingly constructed, appeared to have been manipulated frame by frame in Photoshop, using the smudge tool (I can't remember the name but the one where you can 'move' pixels as if stretching and pulling the image).

Anyway, I just found the answers to all of my questions :) http://www.director-file.com/gondry/promos.html

It's not just the incredible effects Gondry employs, its how perfect they are to communicate the story, an innovative, and genius. I actually feel disgusting, like I'm 'on the boat', when Patricia Arquette is walking home and the background can't quite keep up with her. I just really love Michel Gondry.

Watch it or buy it.

sunday night safran

I was listening to Sunday Night Safran tonight. I love it but I always forget to tune in.

Anyway, they were discussing some kind of weird alleged local bakery crime... and segued into a story about a man, who headed down to the scene, with the intention of appearing as an 'extra' on news reports. Mr. Weinstein, from what I gathered, is a curtains & blinds salesman in Carlisle St, Balaclava. He has gained some kind of reputation, not as a salesman, but as a salesman who prides himself on being an extra... whether as an innocent 'bystander' on local news reports, or a juror on Ally McBeal.

My research skills are being used on more pressing issues tonight, but I do intend on learning more about this average joe. I'd like to perhaps have a chat with him and potentially create an exhibition using stills from his television appearances. Our desire for the 15 minutes is something that really interests me and I think I could really do a lot with.


And on a side note I just discovered Father Bob has a blog!

the first review: a chaotic new world

How to avoid the chaos? Avert your gaze.

Unititled 1

These will be the images I will show in my first review. I've got to clean them up a bit first but this is just for reference. They're not perfect but they're a good starting point.

The project's working title is A Chaotic New World, heavily inspired by the classic distopian novel by Aldous Huxley, which is in turn, inspired by Miranda's speech in Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act V, Scene I.

intro: the documentation and voice of chaos

I'm always so overwhelmed by the prospect of creating art. Why should I? Who do I think I am? I don't even know what I want to communicate! I don't have anything new or original to say! And what the hell is art anyway?!!! Am I doing this to punish myself? I'm not even starting on the actual theoretics behind it all. It all makes me crazy... but here I am.

Working it all out is so chaotic, it raises questions, too many for one girl and one lifetime. Who are we? Why do we exist, why are we so dependent on each other, why do we like, or need art? Why do we need to communicate?! What's my role in all of this? Why can't someone just tell me! Sigh.

Because I like finding answers? Maybe I like finding questions. Perhaps that's why I always feel so overwhelmed and under-informed. I produce questions more rapidly and randomly than I find the answers (if they even exist). But it's not always about questions. It's bigger than that. It's about truth; identifying it, connecting with it, enjoying it.

Thus, my documentation of it. What better platform to document my search than a blog? It's more reliable than my memory. I'm more likely to think more about what I've just seen before closing that tab, if I think it's worthy of posting here. And its perfect for my never-ending desire to justify my thoughts and actions. And ideally, this will all lead to my making sense of it all.

So, essentially, the following are my thoughts & findings, which I will analyse the fuck out of, with the intention of working out who I am, what my place is, what my strengths, interests, likes/dislikes (never underestimate the greatness of the process of elimination)... and the perfect platform to voice my incessantly analytical internal monologue.

Oh also (and possibly most importantly), this should also document my ideas and thoughts about my Photography project/s for the year! *Deep breath*

on being a cow

This has been harder than I expected. I really thought having this kind of platform would be great for getting all my ideas, thoughts, inspirations, etc down... but I have been unable to tear myself away from the articles I'm reading and sites I'm exploring for long enough to post something! I'm a perfect example of the clichéd MTV generation. But I'm just a hungry little information cow that likes learning... or perhaps stimulation, and my current drug of choice is Google Reader. It's like random Wikipedia sprees on speed. And during my search I found something totally appropriate, and even obvious, an article in the Wall Street Journal "Why We're Powerless to Resist Grazing on Endless Web Data". It cites a simple study in which people viewed two basic types of photographs; essentially boring versus interesting. The results aren't surprising. So perhaps I should take the advice and try shooting something as addictive and choc full of new information in the vein of addictive web grazing... athough it might be easier and more effective just to link to Interestingness.

jonathon jones

A couple of weeks ago in Professional Practice we watched the Jonathon Jones Art in Reverse DVD. I really enjoyed it... and the relationship between him and his mum was a nice little surprise.

The thing that stuck with me more than anything was his embossed paper Poles; it reminded me how much I like paper, minimalism, clean, sharp perfectionism, and blank white. And I loved it when he was talking about the supermarket in Tamworth and the contrast between the light inside and out, and how he must be crazy to even think about things like that when he's at the supermarket. And that's why I love artists and the people in my course... we're all crazy and think like that. It's reassuring, and wonderful :)

More from Linden.

His work is currently showing until the 11th May as part of ACCA's NEW08.

the screen/escape/gaze reversal idea

Something that's been lingering in my mind for a while now is the idea of shooting the viewer... reversing the roles. I shot this maybe a week ago in the very early hours of the morning and had given up on trying to sleep and decided to watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It didn't really help in making me feel any saner. But I like the image. I think it was about a 10 second exposure and I haven't really edited it in post yet but its just a sample. I like the composition of the shit all over the room (for the image, not reality). I was expecting the light to be bluer. I tried a similar approach another time, I had two subjects on the couch and looking into the camera. I shone an ancient slide projector onto them and the background, as if the images from the TV were absorbing them, but the effect didn't work out as I'd hoped. I then just threw a primarily blue image into the projector and moved it back so it was less intense, and tried again. I need a better lighting arrangement for it to be effective. I really wanted a full-frontal approach, as if I was taking the photograph from inside the television and they were looking at me... but the image above has questioned my desire for that. I'll do some more experimenting and see what works. I like the idea of seeing a bit more of the surrounding environment. I just realised this is a bit similar to what Joanne's doing. She said she's doing portraits of her family, firstly her dad, surrounded in his escape; books. I guess it depends what theme I go with.

Another idea I had a while back took advantage of the animation software iStopMotion. The first trial (in this context), involved me using the inbuilt webcam in a MacBook. I think I had it set to take an exposure once every four seconds, possibly with a frame rate of 12 per second.... cant remember, and not motivated to do the math. Its a bit more lifelike at half-speed. The results were actually more interesting than I thought. It was just of me killing time on the net... I had it on mute and running in the background; I really did forget it was happening. It continued until the hard drive was full.

After that I had my friend watch the final two episodes of Buffy on the laptop and did it again. It was really great, and funny. I'll post it when I can find it. Maybe. I don't think i have the Quicktime file any more. Maybe when my sister comes down from WA in May I'll try it on her. She's extremely expressive. You can't take her to the movies, it's embarrassing. But I love it.

The software (if I can get the full license) will allow me to print a flipbook, which would be interesting. I'd like to give that a try.

So this is just intended as an intro to this idea... hopefully you will see further developments and discussion soon.

*Edited a week or so later to add (thanks, HandBrake):

the first step in the process of elimination (or on making a decision)

I made a decision today. Out of all the potential subjects I could shoot for my final year I have decided on portraits; most likely headshots. It started after learning a bit about lighting in Darren's class, and just realising how much I want to explore more in that area. Today I went to a lecture by Les, it was based on digital light and the pitfalls of Photoshop, but also about colour, luminance and tone and the great painters and how right they got it. That reminded me of when I studied portrait painting at Deakin, how much fun it was playing and making colours, and investigating skin tone and making it work. They had us go to the NGV International and sketch studies of some of the great historical painters. One I remember was Hercules and Antaeus by Peter Paul Rubens. I will never forget how incredible it was to wander into the modern art section after spending several hours looking at much more conservative and 'realistic' portraits. The first one I saw was Picasso's Weeping Woman... the freedom, and extremities was just so incredible, and it worked! Who knew we had so much green and purple in our skin! And just to be able to communicate so well using techniques that you might assume would create the opposite effect... I love that. I love it when people are true, it's brave. And it works. His work is so him, which is why it can mean something to us. It's real.

Pablo Picasso, Weeping Woman, 1937, oil on canvas 55.0 x 46.0 cm, NGV International

Around the same time I borrowed some books about the works of Lucian Freud and I fell in love with his work, and his style. I'll have to look into him more.

Lucian Freud, Sleeping Head, 1979-80, oil on canvas, 40.32 x 50.48 cm, Private Collection

*Edited a minute or so later to add...

I was just looking at the Weeping Woman and I remembered that during the first week of uni I considered an idea that has stayed with me in the back of my mind... I was feeling depressed and listening to Claire Bowditch, and I had the same feeling I get when I'm depressed and watch Six Feet Under or Season 6 of Buffy. The feeling of really relating, connecting to someone, the creators and artists in these works. And then I thought about taking portraits of people crying. It would be hard, and depressing, but I think I like it. More on that later though its late an I wont go to bed if I continue.

the problem with ideas

I like seeing others' ideas. But it makes me want them for myself and then the more I see the more depressed I become because how can I ever create something so wonderful?