Chatterbox Audio Theater in Memphis

THiS EXISTS!

Rehearsal/Shoot

It looks like the entire shoot is going to be handheld. I had no other choice seeing as this was only discovered after the fact. However, last week during test shoot, I did have a working tripod, so I have some steady footage to work with.
I am really concerned about the edit and order of everything for this film. As soon as I was able to get everything laid out on Final Cut Pro and start editing, I had more concerns.
I want layering and transitions throughout the entire film but I need to find the exact times and the exact moments, exact images, etc that I want superimposed and then also I need this to sync with the sound.
-Which scene should follow my establishing shot? Again, the order and sequence of everything is my main concern.
-I need more footage of water-I have some ideas-I want to shoot more reflective surfaces-such as the Mississippi river, a pool, shoot with the camera through a glass, spray mist in the air and film this to add texture.
-Timing is everything-I have concerns as to which scenes should be completely warped and slowed and which should be sped up?
-I really like the use of the kaleidescope effect in some of the footage. I want to transpose it in final cut in a way that is not excessive or cheesy and actually looks good and works with the film.
-Picture lock and sound lock-make everything sync!!!!!!!!!!!

Snapshots

Diagrams and Story board

Bill Plympton

Bill Plympton is a self proclaimed country man. He loves drawing, Walt Disney and the Warner Bros. When Disney died in '66 he went to animation school in NY. He learned quickly how to gather new and innovative ideas and how to style fast. He experimented a little with live action but states that it turned out to be a complete disaster for him. His "Hot Dog" cartoon reminds me of a mix between Ren and Stimpy and Tim Burton. Plympton loves to animate animals especially dogs and cows. He uses simplified characters. During his show he is nice enough to draw sketches for you on a giant flip pad and show you how he does his animations. Plympton even dresses like Frasier. He says he got a chance to work with the writer and producer of Fraiser who worked with him on "The Fan and the Flower". This is a different style from his earlier works and Plympton often likes to mix it up. When "The Fan and the Flower" was nominated for an oscar, Plympton got the chance to ask Paul Giovanni from Sideways to do a voice for one of his characters. Plymton also worked on animatics, which is a storyboard that is animated with sound. This is the case in "The Cow who wanted to be a Hamburger" and after that, he did some basic concept art which preludes the finalized process of what the film will look like. His newest feature film is called "Cheatin" and it is done in pencil test. Plympton states that animation has no limits and he believes that right now is the perfect time to be an animator. 

Structure

Act I
opening/establishing shot-
Girl falls asleep at her desk-her desk light goes off and this signals the beginning of a dream sequence.
Exposition-
We are introduced to the characters but briefly, as time goes on we catch more glimpses of them individually.

We are introduced to the main characters as soon as we see the that we are somewhere outside in a forrest or wooded area.
Main Character- there are four-no one leader
Dramatic premise-we follow the four characters throughout the woods. They continue to amuse us and each other, with a daunting creepy feel to the way they interact. They play with fire and smoke and each time a firework goes off something dramatic/chaotic happens.
Stipulations-
1.) this will be filmed at night-i need to consider good lighting-i need dramatic lighting. How will I film this so that it looks beautiful and  well lit/ generator? extension chords? flashlights? reflectors? car lights?
2.) I need to film the moon and fireworks-how do i film this on camera with a good exposition?
Dramatic Situation-the characters go from interacting with things-fireworks, sparklers, dancing solo, to interacting with each other. They become more excited, more unpredictable, more ecstatic.
Inciting incident-the first solo dance, the beautiful layering that will symbol the fireworks and the girl dancing as an epiphany, symbol of power and freedom and grace.

Point Plot-two of the characters are enamored with each other. How do they show their admiration towards each other?

Act II
Obtacles-the characters become increasingly uninhibited, they come out of their comfort zone


First Culmination-
the characters become more unpredictable, more entrancing scenes, different textures, more layering. Midpoint Characters become splashed with water, dancing in a fountain, this is symbolic of renewal. There is a bath water scene.

Act III
Climax-the characters rejoice, they are interacting with each other and all move in sync. They start dancing together and become one character. They start chaotically playing in the mud/throwing sand and mud at one another.

Denouement -layering of more fireworks and rapid movement. Pan camera to exposition of the moon.

Character

1.) How do your characters think?
My characters think about how to defeat time and responsibility. They think about how they are these mid twenty-somethings, but they just want to go back in time. These are somewhat of spoiled-inner child repressions. They want to play all the time and not worry about their responsibilities as adults.
2.) How do your characters think they think?
My characters think they are liberated and free from all their duties of living in the real world. In other words, they know they want to go out and play for a limited amount of time, but they think about how they are going to represent their freedom as being limitless and to no end. They think they are powerful and undefeated because they have managed to escape the everyday routine.
3.) What do your characters want?
They want to seem exciting, not  boring, liberated, not grounded. They want to enjoy their exploration into the woods, they dont want to come back.
4.) What do your characters think they want?
They think they want to defy space and time. They think they want to portray one endless childhood game, but they want to show it as it occurs now. They want to show that you dont have to get boring as you get old, but most importantly, they dont want to be bored.
5.) What do your characters believe?
They believe that with a little fun and games, you can make anything you imagine real. They believe that the real world is boring and uneventful and sad.
6.) What do you think they believe?
They believe in each other, and that people dont deceive people and are not bad or evil towards others.
7.) What is your characters' truth?
There is this overwhelming sense of blurring the lines between what is real and what is not. They wear costumes because the costumes are what the characters really feel, what they really want to do and express. They hold on to each others games and fantasies because that is all they want to believe. They dont want to think that in a little while time will run out so they have to be sentimental because they can only keep their memories. Their truth is that anything they imagine is their reality.
8.) What is their real truth?
The truth is, time will run out, as we know it. They will have to stop playing at some point, as the video ends. Tonight will become tomorrow, and during the day, its as if you are under a microscopic lens, so you have to play your part, be responsible and productive. But at night, its as if everything looks better in the moonlight and people can hide under its veil or expose their power because they have something to use as a shield.
9.) What do your characters need?
They need to get along with each other, they need to have similar ideas, and they need to sort of get inspired from one another. They need to be outside their comfort zone.
10.) What do your characters think they need?
I'm sure they probably think they need stuff like warmth and comfort. They think they need evocative ideas.
11.) What actions do they undertake?
The characters need to explore their impulses, and their ability to signal and listen to each other. They need to move in the same way together, they need to work together as individuals, so for instance, when they dance together, it really needs to be believable. They need to really portray their playful attitude, they play with fireworks, they take on this persona of a wild animal in the forrest, and they explore their surroundings. They are supposed to make the woods look more comfortable than your home, they are to make the audience feel invited into their space, they want to make people believe in their dream.
12.) How do your characters feel?
They feel delighted and happy, and free.
13.) How important is this for the characters, what is their sense of urgency?
It is very important that they feel like they have power, control, and their own sense of freedom. It's this fragile and naive quality that is ultimately their downfall, and in the moments when their freedom is threatened or their time is running out, they become frightened.
14.) What is their specificity?
When you get a group of people together, some one always has leadership qualities more so than some one else. It will really be an experiment when we see how well the characters get along. Ultimately they are all supposed to be best friends or something characteristic of a wolf pack. But one person out of the group will always go forward more so than the next and sort of lead the others. These are the specifics that will build each of the characters and progress the sequence of the film.
15.) What is original about them?
Well, they all work together in this. But it is really the choices that they will make on camera that will specify their originality. While I plan to direct as much as possible, I also am interested to see how well they shape their ideas into their own and how they get to know each other in this situation, will they be able to communicate and say, "I dont think this is working, this doesnt feel right, I think I need to kiss him or her, to make people believe that we really love each other, or I think we need to make this face to express this emotion".
16.) What is their character flaw?
Their obvious naivety and stubbornness.

Plot

Q.) What's the plot outline?
A.) The plot is (and this is why I feel there should be an establishing shot of some one going to sleep) a dream some one has in which the characters play, dance, and live in this happy dream world where everyone dances to their own beat and forgets their worries. Its the ultimate portrayal of an escape.
Q.) Are there any symbols?
A.) I want the audience to be mesmerized by the constant playing with fire/fireworks that most of the characters will be acting out. The fireworks/sparklers will symbolize these moments of epiphanies and freedom that the characters have.
Q.) What is the climax?
A.) I think that the whole sequence will be climactic. It is supposed to be this sort of dreamy, dramatic utopia that the characters live in. Since there is no dialogue, the climactic scenes will be the ones that capture the rhythm and the visuals of the piece just right.
Q.) Is it believable?
A.) No, unfortunately. I am playing with the audience's sense of disbelief. At first it will seem goofy and silly because no one thinks they want to go out into a forrest in the middle of nowhere and dance around. Most people will think, "I dont have time to do this in my life,  I have better and more important things to do". But as you continue to watch it, my hope is that the sequence will present its arresting qualities over the viewer and make you think, "I really wish I could run off to this beautiful forrest with all my close friends and just run free, and dance, and shoot off fireworks as if I was born yesterday."

Theme

Q.) What is the essential theme/point for this dealer's choice project?
A.) The point of this project is to explore how a dream functions inside one's mind. I want to portray the elements of this specific dream in a sequence that has a rhythm and a pace, because sometime real life doesnt always flow together so well. I want to show how this dream moves, how it slows things sown, how it shows that people can enjoy something small and trivial.
Q.) What is the goal of dealer's choice? 
A.)  I  want to give this short film a melodramatic, creepy feel that is also beautiful and alluring at the same time in order to make people just stop and notice the little obscure things that people do to make you question every day routine. I want to define how you dont always have to dream something really big and out there, like possessing the ability to fly or have really unrealistic goals. Sometimes people just really want to escape to a place where everything dosent have to make sense. I want this piece to have a rhythm, and I feel the music/soundtrack of this piece is equally important to its visuals because music is something everyone enjoys and it makes people realize that moving and dancing can dramatically abrogate historical time and oriented space.

Genre, Logline, and Synopsis

Genre- experimental-> soundtrack piece->shoegazer


Logline-Close your eyes, open your heart.


Synopsis- Four friends explore their fascination with escaping the everyday routine. They thrill each other with their playfulness. Some of them become enamored with each other while others dance to their own beatific drum. As their rapture unfolds, their release illustrates beautifully the need for a fertile imagination (and an appreciation for the simple things in life). It is the allure and charm of the companions who in an outdoor environment forget their responsibilities, that makes the sequence arresting. 

Dealer's Choice

In lieu of Halloween and my inspiration from Spike JoNzE's Where the Wild Things Are,

I want to do a video based on a dreams, fantasies, and night creatures.

a.) There is no dialogue-soundtrack will be done by my neighbor/musician, Drew Ryan

b.)I need four characters-preferably 3 girls and 1 boy. I have 3 characters so far.

Girl #1

Girl # 2

Girl # 3

Boy

c.) characters will run through a forrest landscape. there will be a choreographed danced. They will be playing with fireworks, dancing, playing with dirt, wearing white costumes, and running in fountains, possibly a bath scene.

The opening/establishing shot will be a girl falls asleep on her desk with her head down. Her desk lamp is on. We zoom into her face. The desk lamp switches off. We cut and begin the dream sequence.

d.) Props-1.) Different color lights (red and blue)

2.) white costumes

3.) red lipstick

4.) sparklers

5.) fireworks

6.) smoke

7.) flash lights

8.) glitter

9.) pumpkins

e.) scenes:

Possible bath scene with a girl underwater

fountain scene

forrest scene

concrete wall scene

Dance scene-

there will be a solo dance scene and a group dance scene. The solo dance scene will be a girl dancing against a solid background. The group scene will be a coreopgraphed sequence. Then there will be a group scene where everyone is playing in the dirt, more hand puppets.

The closing shot will be of the moon.

Point A to B notes

Point A to B notes


1. Analysis of Script



a.) 1.) Elisa- (girl) Elisa is from the suburbs. Her likes are in fashion and coffee. She went to school to study fashion design and now works in a local coffee shop in order to regain herself before grad school/

2.) Dan- (boy) also lives in the suburbs. He likes to ride his bike and loves his dog. His girlfriend lives and studies abroad. He is currently trying to get a good job after graduating college.



b.) 1. ) Elisa- she loves parties. She hates not being able to attend events lately because she works so many hours trying to save up money for grad school. She has sold and pawned off most of her valuable clothes. Now she really wants to attend this party but seriously can’t decide what to wear. She has a handful of possibilities but may have to make the clothes herself.

2.) Dan currently does not have a job which means he does not have money. He likes to spend money. He also has a bit of a drinking problem. He has to do enough chores around his parent’s house so he can get some money for the party. He wants to buy some booze for the evening.



c.) 1.) Elisa- she will borrow some of her friend’s clothes for the evening. She feels that she has gained weight though, and can’t fit into anything. She will have to make a new outfit from scratch. It will be cheaper anyway, then buying something.

2.) Dan- has to mow the lawn, pass out papers, and do some busy work for his father's office so he can get some cash for the evening.

d.) 1. ) Elisa- she will call some friends, ask them to borrow clothes. She will take some of her old things, tear them apart, and make them into something new.

2.) Dan- he will do busywork around the house, ride his bike and pass out newspapers, mow the lawn, do the dishes, etc.



e. 1.) Elisa has to make her own outfit; she can’t fit into her friends' clothing.

2.) Dan has to do more than one job to get money

f.) 1.) Elisa-she talks on the phone, does her nails, makes coffee, does her hair, tries on clothes and shoes.

2.) Dan, talks to his family, mows the lawn, rides his bike, passes out papers, goes to the liquor store, etc



2. Breakdown of the Script



a.) The main actors are Elisa and Dan. There will also be Elisa's friend, Jesse, who will lend her some clothes. The main event will take place at a party (Odessa) where we will have a bunch of college kids come out of one single car. It can be anywhere from 5-20 people.

b.) Elisa will be in 5 scenes-close ups in her room, medium shots, close ups at the party.

Dan will be on 5 scenes-close up scenes in house, medium and long shots outside, party shots.

Jesse will be in 1 scene

A majority/extras will be in 3 scenes

c.) Locations:

1.) Elisa's house-her room, bathroom and closet

2.) Dan's house-his kitchen, his front lawn, possibly his job, and his neighborhood

3. ) Outside of Odessa on broad avenue in a car

4.) At Odessa and in their backyard.

f.) alcohol, beer, bottles, etc.


3.)

6. ) I will need to shoot over the weekend. Actors work on various days, also, the party is happening in real time on saturday oct. 10.

Character A to B development

I have this idea of shooting two characters, again one female and one male. I like the dynamics between one female and one male better as opposed to a coalition of characters of the same sex. I have a pretty simple idea for a story line. It’s basic in the way that it’s a typical problem that happens frequently to people our age. I feel like this is a common scenario and will be easy to find in terms of shooting. It’s a Friday or Saturday night. The two characters, lets call them boy and girl, have just received news of this huge party that is going on later in the night. I want to have boy and girl go through a variety of obstacles before they finally reach the party in the end. I have in mind that I want the resolution of the party scene to look like what is shown in the snapshot above. I want to film a car from a cropped angle and have a bunch of people filter in and out of it so that it seems like there are a million people getting out of this one little bitty car. When I think party I think lights, drinks, cell phones out, hipster clothing, lots of drinking, etc. I want to capture this on film so the setting seems appropriate. I think the obstacles the two characters will encounter can be fairly basic. The girl wakes up Saturday morning and spends all day trying to find the right outfit, informing her friends to attend. The boy wakes up and finds out he has no money. He spends all day mowing the yard and making coffee at a local cafe to earn money. Then he spends the rest of the evening finding and buying alcohol, whatever, something like that etc. The end everyone toasts and has a ball. Its will be a good night.

Extra Credit-Russian Ark

Russian Ark- A film by Alexander Sokurov

If you have not seen this movie, it is a must. I was completely blown away by this, I have never seen anything quite like it. It ran for 90 minutes and was recorded with a hand held steady cam. The entire movie was shot IN ONE TAKE and had a cast of over 2000 extras. I was also surprised to find out that this movie was shot in 2001. I thought it would be older, maybe that's because of the time period that they were referenceing, but I'm not quite sure what that time was either. The costumes and imagery were stunning. The film was shot in 33 rooms at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia and after 4 takes, the shot was a success.

    In the film we follow around  an unnamed narraor that is behind the camera who implies that he has died in some horrible accident and is a ghost drifting through the palace. In each room, he encounters various real and fictional people from various time periods in the city's three-hundred-year history. He is accompanied by the Marquid de Custine who represents the nineteenth-century traveller  who visited Russia in 1839 and wrote a widely-read book about his visit.

In the end, the narrator leaves the building through a side exit. The building is represented as an ark preserving Russian culture, and floating in the sea.

Critique

COVERAGE! COVERAGE! COVERAGE!

There were a few problems with my edit. First off, I need a tighter edit; the sequence was too long, it ran over 4 minutes. Also, I need way more close ups. The entire "film" was shot at awkward angles, some of the props/objects have more of a close up than the talent. I was also right about taking the whole first shot from outside completely out. It would be better just to leave the sequence as a collage of images, almost like a process, as in Ameli'e. I also need to consider my framing better and move more with the camera, while changing up the perspectives from first to second person. I need to plan where I place the camera in advance, and pay attention to the edges. Lastly, there is no ending.

Where the Wild Thingz are & Christian Joy-Los Angeles

In honor of Where the Wild Things Are, Christian Joy—most well-known as the designer behind the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O's crazy costumes—created five monster suits based off of the Wild Things and Max. All costumes will be on display and for sale at Space 15 Twenty, with a percentage of the proceeds donated to 826 Valencia.

Here, he gives us the low down on what the costumes are made out of...

"Everyone knows the way Max looks like, and I wanted to stay within the realm of what a kid's suit would look like. But I also thought that the rest of the Wild Things were already looking like a glam rock band, so I thought he should be a little bit rock n' roll. I found this weird silver fabric, and we made the paws and crown out of Mylar, and then the tail is like a found piece from a fabric store."


Photographed by Clarke Tolton

Janet Koplos

Janet Koplos came to my professional practices class today. Cynthia had us prep some questions for her in advance. In addition, she also gave a lecture last night at our school. This woman is genuinely funny when she speaks, and reminds me of my high school art teacher and BFF, Mary Kay Vangieson. This was funny too because Mrs. Vangieson was at her lecture. Anway, I got a chance to ask Mrs. Koplos some questions. She is a critic for a craft magazine< Art In America. Most of us cringe when we hear the word craft, us art school snobs. But Mrs. Koplos stated that she didnt care to write about some one like Matthew Barney, she "wanted to write about some one who has not been written about". She said that craft is enetering a fascinating, modern, and exciting time right now and the way she views craft is very similar to all other art. She observes it from the 2 dimensional and 3 dimensonal plane. She also stated that the minute craft becomes fashionable and a sell out, she's moving on. Later at her lecture she showed examples from artists that range from every protean part of the world. She gave anecdotes about a Japanese schizophrenic artist she met while in Japan and then it made sense to her why her work was so chaotic. I enjoyed this woman alot, who said she was "tricked into writing about art".

The Memory Project-Retraced

I have to say shooting film takes an exceptional amount of patience and with that a drive to make things interesting and fascinating appear on film, and having inspiration that is to keep you working until you achieve your long term goal. There was a definite problem with my previous concept for the film. Obviously the lack of having access to children....BIG SIGH.............................
HOWEVER,
   I had to come up with a new way to convey my idea, quick. I knew exactly what I wanted to convey with the memory project-it's about nostalgia. I wanted to take memories from my childhood, some thing simple and construct it in a way that's fun to look at and capture on film. My inspiration for the project came from the film Amelie' about Amelie Poulain by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. There is a sequence that Jeunet shoots in the introduction of the film where he takes the little girl that is to portray the later character, and has her do simple, nostalgic, playful things. I.E. peeling glue off your hand, putting rasberries on your fingertips, etc. So I decided to make up for the lack of access to children for my previous memory/dream idea with having my talent recap on some of their favorite games/ activities they enjoyed as a child. My talent that I used were two close friends who did great. They were patient and focused for both days of the shoot. That may have something to do with taking them to dinner and a movie.The first day we shot outside in natural light for an hour and a half total to film a minute of film! I had them playing cards outside and discussing what they were to do for the summer-I wanted to reference time. This establishing shot was to prelude what was to come. One problem I had was the blaring noise cicadas make. I had to balance that sound against the dialog of my subject. Also, I had them playing Egyptian Rat Screw on a glass table. When they slap the cards, the mic picks up a spike. I had to adjust the levels. Afterwords, I treated my talent to a film, the one night premeir of Cigarette Girl per my current internship at Indie Memphis. The tix were a costly 12 bucks a piece for a film that was less exciting than it's meaning. Whatever.
Day two was more intense, we filmed the remainder of the sequence for the 5 minute segment. A works worth of 5 hours. I filmed indoors, in my parents dining room in Germantown. The dining room has glossy wood flooring and it gives it a yellow nuance. All the rooms in the house are white anyway. I took a total of 6 shoots, they are as follows:
1. playing w/ dominos
2. blowing bubble gum
3.  sucking on a spaghetti strand
4. playing with string
5. making shadow puppets on the wall
6. blowing soap bubbles
It can look really shitty when filming indoors if you do not know how to use proper lighting. I did not take time to review the positioning of the lights for set up, I feel that would have saved me some time in pre-production. Instead, I took and hour and a half last Friday night to set up proper lighting. When the talent arrived and I had to change in between shots, that took extra time. My biggest concern is the continuity of the lighting. Shooting in a white room can make things appear flat on camera if you dont know what you're doing. Often times I found myself turning the key light and the fill light up towards the ceiling, other wise they cast glares on my subject. I thinks this was the hardest thing to do on set. I aim to achieve the "Rembrant Patch" for next time.
      I aimed to shoot this five minute film in its entirety. I wanted to shoot as it were to be viewed naturally, before editing, so that I would have as little editing as possible to do for later. I dont want to rely on computer effects as much, although I have to admit it's a pretty fun part.
....Storyboards to follow....-X Leni
***Ellen Rogers Photography***

The character lighting project

We had to make adjustments for our character lighting project. From the beginning, we all wanted to focus on tense/thriller/scary lighting for our character. We decided to meet at Jen's work, via Holland Studio. Jen saved the day on this one. When we got there, two of our bulbs went out from the Lowell Kit. That meant we only had one light to work with. The space was pretty appropriate and we had the convenience of using other random lights we found in the studio. However, these lights were overhead lights and did not serve the same purpose. We were missing a fill light and back light! 

For our first scene, we had our talent walk down a hallway with a bunch of rooms. We used a drawing lamp that we set up in one room and opened the door so light wold flood the hall way. Then we used our  only key light in another door way and aimed it at the hallway. When our talent walked down the hallway, we had her stop at the second doorway (same place the key light was) and she came into focus. At the same time, Jen used a projector/strobe like lamp with a clicker that she clicked so the light would shutter similar to that of a flash on a camera. This was for our long shot. For our medium shot, we illuminated out talent from a dressing room. We had the key light placed in the same room and used the white umbrella to create a soft white balance. We used the drawing lamp as an attempt to replace the fill light and lit up our talent's face from the door way. We also used a reflector to cast interesting lighting effects on our subject. For our last shot, the close up, we placed all the lights we had in a room and filmed from outside in the dark hallway. We had our talent open the door just a crack and let the light flood her face.

Daily Posts-Memory Revisited

Noise: The sound of children laughing and playing on a playground seems like any normal day. The setting is outside-wide open fields, half cast, partly sunny. Movement: There are children running and chasing each other, swings are flying up towards the sky, children are moving fast downwards on slides. You cant decipher any phrases in particular, but you can hear imminent laughter and giddy voices chanting. Suddenly the sky shudders. These storms are typical here in the south during hurricane season, and seem to sneak up on you fast and with tremendous strength. First the wind grows, and then when it seems to develop enough speed it seems to swallow everything in sight. It begins to whistle and then turns into a shrill wail, droning out the voices of small children as they lower to slow murmurs. Laughter turns into screams. Everywhere teachers and chaperones are trying to gather the children into small groups. It appears as if it may rain any minute and that it will wash away everything. A small group of children are too far to hear where a teacher is directing every one to go for cover. It seems the school building has moved farther away since they last saw it, but this is only because the storm makes every thing harder.

Scene: A girl about the age of 7 or 8 looks at her friends who are all crying. They are panicking and seem too scared to know what to do next. The girl starts to get anxious. She is irritated by everything around her. The storm is reaching its peak by now. There is so much commotion and loud noises every where, she starts to shake. She wants to isolate herself. She feels as though her head is about to burst. She clenches her fists and squeezes her eyes shut. She counts to ten. When she opens her eyes she finds herself safe. She is in her bedroom, laying in her bed. As she tries to make sense of the sequence of events she cant bring herself to believe that this was all just a bad dream. She decides she has to go back, she has to go back to the storm to save her friends. She lays back on her pillow and closes her eyes. She counts to ten. She thinks she can go back and tell everyone to just imagine themselves back in their homes and that they too can escape. She tries really hard to return. She clamps her lips. Beams of sweat start to form on her forehead. She concentrates so hard that she starts to get dizzy from staring at the inside of her eyelids. Seconds pass by that seem like hours. She opens her eyes. She comes to herself. She is no longer a little girl anymore at the playground. She is aware that she is in a vaguely familiar room. It's a basement of a school building. She hears voices. She realizes she is not alone but sitting in a circle of other people. She is sitting in a class room where every one is having a discussion. The discussion seems to be about writing. The instructor is particularly intriguing. She speaks about how important it is to keep up with appearances. She says that you must live and breathe writing if you want to be writer. She says that you must always be in character. She also says that if you are going to be a writer in this city that for this next project every one must wear a particular kind of dress. She tells the class their next assignment.

Memory Part One-A

 I came across an old journal sitting under my bed that had a collection of dreams I had written about and then tried to interpret their meaning. I had this idea to connect them together into a scene for a movie. 

After assembling a handful of my own dreams into context the idea of combining other peoples’ dreams to develop a more engaging selection of scenes came to mind. I found out that in most peoples’ dreams there was always a motif or a symbol that remained strong through out and imposed them in strange situations.

                                                            Sequence of a dream

  A girl has dreams of being a child in a playground with all of her friends. At one point a storm seems to construct in the distance. The playground begins to fall apart. It closes in on them.  There are rocks and boulders falling from the sky. The children become trapped. There is frantic running and the shrill screaming of children is so provoking and disturbing. In a moment of terror a girl tells her friends that if they squeeze their eyes really tight they will wake up, as if the horrible storm has now made every one aware that they are in a dream and can escape if they wish. But as the girl opens her clenched eyes, she discerns she is the first to awake. She realizes she has left all her friends behind so she must fall asleep again in order to return to them. When she returns she finds herself in a basement of a school building. There are other people in the room. What used to be a circle of her childhood friends is now a circle of grown people she has never met before. There is a girl that is taking. She explains that in order to be a writer you must have some thing good to write about. She assigns every one in the circle to go out and interact with the people outside, and to make a night of it. She tells every one to meet her back in the same place tomorrow  with a story explaining the events from last night.

Rewriting: the continuation of the dream...
    

Sunday Sept. 6 (the day before labor day)

The Making Time Pool Party... The Sequel... The Movie or "Hot Dog the Movie, Part III" from klipcollective on Vimeo.
@ Bamboo Bar
927 Delaware Ave
Phily, PA
4pm-2am

The David Lynch Empire

One of the hardest times I've had trying to understand a movie:
INLAND EMPIRE

Neorealism-Frederico Felini- ROMA 1972

Visconti

Death in Venice 1971
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTP7XFVGnxQ

Luchino Visconti di Modrone

Lady Dior Affair

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL5Nnay5sKY

Relentless Inspiration: all things cheeseburger

Cheeseburger Cupcake

Cheeseburger spandex

Cheeseburger dribbles

Burger bed

Movement

R.J. Cutler produced the 1993 Academy Award-nominated film The War Room—a look inside Bill Clinton's presidential campaign—and with his latest film, The September Issue, he focuses on another fearless leader in the midst of an epic battle: Anna Wintour and her staff as they put together the September 2007 issue of Vogue, which weighed in at nearly five lbs. and is the largest magazine ever published. The film premieres this week at the Sundance Film Festival, and word on the street is that Cutler had unprecedented access to Wintour. A bit of post-Devil damage control, perhaps?

Le Fashion Le Light Le Smoking

LIGHT

                                   

LIGHT

Photographers/illustrators Ian Harding and Lawrance Mann known as Ian & Lozz duo= My Animal Side

Juliana Beasley

http://www.julianabeasley.com/

LIGHT:

Very real moments

Very awkward