Critique of A 4 Poetics of Time
Please discuss each other's work (choose one or more to talk about in context of the class). In doing so please do not simply say "I like..." or "I don't like..." try to explain what you are thinking in full detail about someone's work. In other words why do like or dislike something? Also remember regardless of if you do or do not like it you should still talk about it in relation to the given assignment, is the work you are talking about an excellent example; was it terrible; or perhaps it did not really do what was asked but was highly successful in an other way. Also please discuss the assignment in general what did you learn from it; was hard easy,why; Did it relate to the last assignment if so how, etc...
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The easiest part of this assignment was collecting imagery. Creating a shot list and picturing it in your head is lot easier than pulling all the separate pieces together into a coherent whole. I suppose that what I learned from this was to think of new ways to play with time. To not think of time as a linear progression that has to be stuck to closely.
One of the ones that stuck out to me the most was Jessica Lavoie's. The parts that really grabbed me were when she played with the flight of the basketball. The change of direction was very smooth, and didn't have the jerkiness I saw in mine.
Kathleen Bailey's had a very interesting sparse feel to it. Even in the shots with more action in them the feel was one of emptiness.
I agree with Isaac, this assignment was a good exercise in playing with time. It's an important trait to be able to manipulate time in editing and that's what this was all about.
As for the videos, a shot that stuck out was the snow shot in Jessica Lavoie's piece, it was a nicely setup shot and the timing structure gave it a nice look. I liked a lot of the framing in Jesse Malenson's piece as well. I agree with Raph's critique's from the lecture on both Jake and Patrick's pieces. They were both pretty awesome. I also liked the structure if Isaac's piece, the dog footage towards the end speeding up and slowing down was really effective.
I found this project a good exploration for myself and how I look at film making. I really spent a lot of time thinking before I shot, but also allowed myself to be very open, and just observe. I came up with most my shots after walking for a while and observing my surroundings, and seeing things that 'worked' and felt exactly how I wanted them too. I feel I went a little to in-depth with my structure and the edits, trying to make them exact and each part structure (when i wrote it out), because as I look back some of the 'poetry' I feel is lost, and not easily recognized.
Looking at the other pieces I notice a range of ideas for how people saw this assignment. Its interesting to have an assignment when we have no examples or anything to base ours off of, because it allows us to have to think more in-depth of how we believe it should be and make sit more personal.
A couple Pieces that stood out was, Jesse Melanson's, because you could really see the poetic structure, and could follow his piece as if it were a poem being red. I also liked the editing he used to depict the story, because they allowed for an interesting visual experience.
Another was Jake Williams because of the narrative he described through his images, It had a metaphoric value, allowing for interpretation. but also had an underlying meaning that was still clear. The images and the use of layering really added to the piece and the feeling.
I was looking forward to doing this project up until the point i realized that my 3CCD camera was in america and i was in england. I still made an attempt using a Cybershot but i was disappointed with the quality and how my piece turned out.
Other than that i would like to say that i enjoyed Pat and Jakes work very much. The stutter stepping of Pats really added to the erie-ness of what was being shown, and the overlaying images Jake used really added to the overall idea of his piece.
It's difficult to actually "see" poetry in the works. You sort of have to watch it a few times to get a sense of the poetic structure. Even then I think this was a difficult assignment... trying to replicate poetic structure through image. You can get a sense of it through the timing but the image adds another aspect.
Jake did a really nice job of overlaying the images of smoking, the smoke stack, and the flag. It's a really nice effect that does a lot to help the narrative. The imagery of the swings in Kathleen's piece and the lack of people was a really strong message. It felt and looked poetic. Patrick, Jesse had a really nice, clear narrative. That is something I would do differently in my piece. The narrative isn't very clear. The sound also works really nice with their pieces. Sometimes it may compete too much with the image, but sound is really everything. I think people are less engaged with a silent film.
This assignment was unique in that the parts that I enjoyed most about this assignment were probably the same as the one I disliked most. For example, I enjoyed the fact that this assignment was, for me at least, very broad directionally not only because it gives you, the creator more control and more power, but also most everyone will have somewhat of a different final product.
However, the broadness also worked against me in that even though I did not have any particular questions concerning the assignment, I felt as though I did not have a complete grasp on the assignment. I decided to just go with the 'flow' and see what I came up with.
For the most part, I did not enjoy the idea that we had to portray poetry by editing. This assignment made me feel like my footage did not matter and that all we really could have done was grab some random footage of anything and then as long as we kept some sort of "pattern-ized" edit structure, as described in the directions...our assignment would be a success. I guess, for me, this exercise just felt more like an editing exercise that did not require us to actually think about what we would shoot for footage.
With this little personal issue in mind, I would have to say the piece I enjoyed most was Jake Williams. After listening to Jake describe what sort of meaning he was trying to go for by shooting the smoke stack, cigarette and american flag, I gained more of a liking for it. With his footage described combined with his thoughtful editing choice, it seemed to stick out more.
This assignment was not my favorite. I like what everyone else did. But I didn't really understand the assignment, I know it was new. I think it is a good use of time based media. I wish I had done more with my ideas. I liked, I think James Marcels piece with the blood muffin disturbing as it was. It was more of a narrative than the others but at least I could see some connection.
I had a hard time, like others, understanding the assignment as well. In poetry its alot easier to perceive feeling with rhymes because I think its easier to rhyme with words and sound then time-based video. Maybe its because we arent used to looking for this kind of rhyming in video like we are used too in reading poetry.
When I watched the other classmates work, the first one I saw was patricks and I was really amused. Very interesting, curious project. I did alot of wondering and though his video was great it made me second guess if I did my video correctly? I couldn't follow much rhyme beside the middle and end and saw other forms of editing then just the fast, reverse, freeze frame, ect....
I as well, like others, liked the way Jake overlapped some scenes to give smoother transitions. It flowed well and worked together nicely.
My piece was a tribute to the horrible awkwardness i felt watching Eraserhead for the first time, and an attempt to expand upon David lynches techniques for creative discomfort. The creepy imagery, agitating acapella soundtrack, and subject matter in general were engineered to feel... not right. When I applied the poetically placed edits, i did so in a way to enhance the discomfort. If someting gross happens, we see it happen again, and then we see it happen slowly. I had tons of fun on this one.
Jake Williams did a killer job on this one. As far as what I imagine his shot list looked like, I'm guessing it was pretty sparse. This looks like it was shot from the hip, but it works. Excellent selection of imagery and use of montage create multiple meaning and interpretations.
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