Tranquility Artists Statement

Step One

1. I am a filmmaker; I have been as long as I can remember. When I was nine years old I met a producer for the History Channel, and he was gracious enough to take me under his wing and teach me what he knows. I make films because it’s a healthy release for me; while some people do drugs and others fight when they are frustrated, I write a script or plan out scenes for a script I’ve already written to relax myself. When filming goes well I get a sort of adrenaline rush and I get enveloped in what I am doing, I will become so focused on the scenes and making them perfect that I will lose sight of things like time, or hunger. I love when everybody is having fun and focusing during a scene, it means that the product will communicate emotion better because the people are enjoying doing it and thus getting more into character, and the cameramen will begin experimenting with more creative shots to convey the emotions wanted.
   1. Phrases – passion
   2. Convey emotions as clearly as possible
   3. Love what I do
   4. Be happy, but be focused
2. Phrases
   1. Passion
   2. Be clear, be emotional
   3. Dive in and don’t come out until satisfied
   4. Imaginative
   5. Thoughtful
   6. Love it or leave it alone
   7. Don’t make something you won’t enjoy
3. Questions
   1. My favorite medium is film, because I love creating stories and telling tales for everybody to see, I also enjoy informing or educating as well as entertaining.
   2. My favorite material is actually Travel Channel shows, especially Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. I enjoy it most because it teaches me about life in other places, how to be a traveler, and still entertains me at the same time.
   3. I like creating a story, coming up with a new idea, or tweaking one that already exists. Once I have the idea it takes me a while to write a script, because I get new ideas, but I enjoy that whole process of creation and seeing where my mind goes.
   4. When there are no flaws and I feel my message was conveyed clearly. If there are continuity errors, bad writing or acting, or what I wanted to say is lost, I consider my work below my standards.
   5. My work tends to follow a trend of having a lot of shots, a lot of extra footage and taking a long time to create. I look through every little thing to make sure my work is how I want it, so when I make something I take a while because of the nature of my habits. Because of this there are no patterns in my work, it always changes based on what I want to accomplish.
   6. I was taught that the audience is always right, and that your work should cater to the crowd or it won’t sell, I write material for myself and then let the audience decide if they like it or not. There are always going to be people who like different things, and if my work has mass appeal that would be great, if not that’s fine too, as long as I am satisfied with what I’ve done.
   7. Blue, it is a calming color that is all around us, just look up and you see it. It can also convey many different emotions, blue is sadness, and blue is also relaxation. I tend to use cooler colors when I want a relaxed or sad scene because blue has a relaxing feel, or sad depending on how it is used.
4. New Phrases
   1. Nit-picky
   2. Precise
   3. Personally geared, people who enjoy it can watch it

5. Imaginative- characterized by or bearing evidence of imagination.

of, pertaining to, or concerned with imagination.

given to imagining,  as persons.

having exceptional powers of imagination.

lacking truth; fanciful.

Precise- definitely or strictly stated, defined, or fixed.

being exactly that and neither more nor less

being just that and no other.

definite or exact in statement, as a person.

carefully distinct.

6. When I work with film I am reminded that storytelling is still an important part of being a person, and that people need someone to tell them new and creative stores. I begin a piece out of the blue, it tends to be a spontaneous idea. I know a piece is done when it look great and I cannot change it anymore without losing my subject. When my work is going well I am filled with a sense of euphoria. When people see my work I’d like them to see how much I care about what I do, and feel the emotions I convey.

Step Two

I am a filmmaker because I love to tell stories, and visual stories fascinate me. I love working behind the camera, and I enjoy editing. Unlike old storytellers or novelists, I enjoy stories about people and their feelings, and to me filming is the best medium to tell my stories through. From a young age a filmmaker taught me how to create stories using sight and sound. This filmmaker, Lou Reda, is a producer for the History Channel, and from the age of nine he has had me visit him and learn from him the art of story telling through video. With film I hope to become a Travel Channel director or producer, maybe someday get a high up position there, but I would love to work in travel television because I love travelling and telling people about my experiences around the world, and doing so on TV would be a dream come true. From there maybe I would move to Hollywood and classic film directing, but for now I believe that being on the Travel Channel would be perfect.

Many of my decisions in my work are made because I am very picky about my final product. If something looks odd to me in a work I make I will find the best alternative to what I already have, making my work in my mind better. I have no sort of common theme that all my works carry; everything I do is unique and tailored to what message I am supposed to or trying to send. If I am making something that needs to send a message that’s dark or depressing, I will use darker colors and create the mood. If I am making a piece that is happy I will use more warm colors and make it cheerier. My work reflects its purpose as much as it reflects me.

I am making a mood piece that is centered on tranquility. I live in a small town in rural Pennsylvania, and the transition to living in the city caused me to lose my ability to sleep as well. So, I am making a piece that will contrast the hustle and bustle of Washington DC with the peaceful serenity of living on a farm in Pennsylvania. I believe the inspiration for this piece would come from a few different angles, personally from my inability to sleep, and style-wise from scene’s taken out of the movie’s Gettysburg and Gods and Generals. Although these Civil War films are not focused on nature, what they do is contrast the serenity of farms and fields with the insanity of conflict. While I am not showing violence, I am showing insanity, but instead of violent it is sensory overload.

Step Three

I am a filmmaker because I love to tell stories, and visual stories fascinate me. I love working behind the camera, and I enjoy editing. Unlike old storytellers or novelists, I enjoy stories about people and their feelings, and to me filming is the best medium to tell my stories through. From a young age a filmmaker taught me how to create stories using sight and sound. This filmmaker, Lou Reda, is a producer for the History Channel, and from the age of nine he has had me visit him and learn from him the art of story telling through video. With film I hope to become a Travel Channel director or producer, maybe someday get a high up position there, but I would love to work in travel television because I love travelling and telling people about my experiences around the world, and doing so on TV would be a dream come true. From there maybe I would move to Hollywood and classic film directing, but for now I believe that being on the Travel Channel would be perfect.

Many of my decisions in my work are made because I am very picky about my final product. If something looks odd to me in a work I make I will find the best alternative to what I already have, making my work in my mind better. I have no sort of common theme that all my works carry; everything I do is unique and tailored to what message I am supposed to or trying to send. If I am making something that needs to send a message that’s dark or depressing, I will use darker colors and create the mood. If I am making a piece that is happy I will use more warm colors and make it cheerier. My work reflects its purpose as much as it reflects me.

I am making a mood piece that is centered on tranquility. I live in a small town in rural Pennsylvania, and the transition to living in the city caused me to lose my ability to sleep as well. So, I am making a piece that will contrast the hustle and bustle of Washington DC with the peaceful serenity of living on a farm in Pennsylvania. I believe the inspiration for this piece would come from a few different angles, personally from my inability to sleep, and style-wise from scene’s taken out of the movie’s Gettysburg and Gods and Generals. Although these Civil War films are not focused on nature, what they do is contrast the serenity of farms and fields with the insanity of conflict. While I am not showing violence, I am showing insanity, but instead of violent it is sensory overload.

I feel like my film style reflects my photography style, wide sweeping landscapes. I do not like photographing people, I enjoy capturing nature, and because of this I think I film a lot of stock footage of landscapes for my features. I find that to establish the setting makes a film more compelling scene. Although I do film people, in cases where I am telling a story, at the same time I also will film the area where the people are before showing them.

Steps Four through Six

I am a filmmaker because I love to tell stories. Visual stories fascinate me. I love working behind the camera, and I enjoy editing. Unlike old storytellers or novelists, I enjoy stories about people and their feelings, and to me filming is the best medium to tell my stories through. From a young age a filmmaker taught me how to create stories using sight and sound. This filmmaker, Lou Reda, is a producer for the History Channel, and he has had me visit him and learn from him the art of story telling through video. With film I hope to become a Travel Channel director or producer, maybe someday get a high up position there, but I would love to work in travel television because I love travelling and telling people about my experiences around the world, and doing so on TV would be a dream come true. From there maybe I would move to Hollywood and film directing, but for now I believe that being on the Travel Channel would be perfect.

Many of my decisions in my work are made because I am very picky about my final product. If something looks odd to me I will find the best alternative to what I already have, making my work in my mind better. I have no sort of common theme that all my works carry; everything I do is unique and tailored to what message I am supposed to or trying to send. If I am making something that needs to send a message that’s dark or depressing, I will use darker colors and create the mood. If I am making a piece that is happy I will use more warm colors and make it cheerier. My work reflects its purpose as much as it reflects me.

I am making a mood piece that is centered on tranquility. I live in a small town in rural Pennsylvania, and the transition to living in the city caused me to lose my ability to sleep. So, I am making a piece that will contrast the hustle and bustle of Washington DC with the peaceful serenity of living on a farm in Pennsylvania. I believe the inspiration for this piece would come from a few different angles, personally from my inability to sleep, and style-wise from scene’s taken out of the movie’s Gettysburg and Gods and Generals. Although these Civil War films are not focused on nature, what they do is contrast the serenity of farms and fields with the insanity of conflict. While I am not showing violence, I am showing insanity, but instead of violent it is sensory overload.

I feel like my film style reflects my photography style, wide sweeping landscapes. I do not like photographing people, I enjoy capturing nature, and because of this I think I film a lot of stock footage of landscapes for my features. I find that to establish the setting makes a film more compelling scene. Although I do film people, in cases where I am telling a story, at the same time I also will film the area where the people are before showing them.

Serenity in Country Living – Final Project Proposal

The title of my work is “Serenity in Country Living”. I titled my piece this because I live out in the country, rural Pennsylvania, and I noticed upon reaching the city that it is just generally quiet almost all the time. Washington DC is not, however, and I have had problems sleeping because of it. That is when I came up with the concept, I thought to myself, “Why can’t I sleep anymore? Is it awkward to sleep in a room with someone else? Do I miss my bed too much? Or is it just too noisy for me here?” When I reflected on that I realized that the noises here are things I never had to deal with noises such as people in a hall, buses right under my window, a roommate who snores, airplanes and cars until I arrived here. So, I decided that my piece will be a film, showing the serenity and tranquility of country life in relation to the hustle and bustle of city living. In my film I hope to show two things; the first is that life in the city is way too fast, and that people should slow down and look around like country folk (myself included) do. The second intention of my piece is sort of personal, I want to explain to myself why I’ve needed so long to adjust to sleeping in the city, and by doing so I hope that I will be able to realize what is causing all my sleeping problems, and thus adapt to be able to sleep better.

I hope to make this film roughly a minute long or thereabout, I am going to take the first third of the movie to show the insanity of living in the city, and then make a slow transition to the country where it will remain for the last two-thirds of the film will be all in Pennsylvania, showing the farm, the park and the view of the farmlands around my town in that order. This will show that life can be seen and taken slowly, as well as progressively get more and more tranquil as the film progresses.

For my production I have already done the filming of my hometown, I filmed that all over Thanksgiving break. The Washington portion of the filming will be done over the next few weeks, and I will be going all throughout the city looking for quintessential examples of noisiness in the city. My pre-production planning was simple, I decided locations at home and found tentative ones in the city, such as Metro Center and that area, and Dupont Circle. I personally do not like storyboarding, I find that if I arrive at the location then I will find a spot that works for my plan and it will turn out better than if I preplan it. I find that I am more creative on the fly when I film than if I go too deep in planning, as storyboarding does. What I did was decide I would go to a location, arrive, and then make it up as I went along. Personally I feel like my film from home has turned out very well because of this.

Another artist, or any type of art that I have seen at some point in time did not necessarily inspire me. I’m sure that somewhere in my mind I remember seeing something that I used as inspiration, however when I developed the idea it was very spontaneous as opposed to being inspired from somewhere else. My shots were inspired from scenes from the Civil War movies that Ted Turner produced (Gettysburg and Gods and Generals). In these movies the places where the battles were fought were shown beforehand, and the natural beauty of the area was accented to compliment the violence that was to come. Although I do not want a major battle to be fought at my horse farm, the way that those shots were set up followed a style that I particularly like.

My audience is either people from the city who are wrapped up in the chaos that surrounds them, almost as a meditation for them to slow down and to possibly start observing their surroundings instead of running a million miles an hour. Also, this appeals to people from the country that are living in the city. This is because it will be a way for them to recall the slow, almost trancelike, pace that life in rural areas proceeds at.

Final Project Ideas

Photography: Life in Nazareth. I will go around my town and take photos of different places and things that are directly related to life in my hometown. The pictures will consist of things from nature to architecture to events that will be happening.

 

Film: Tell a story. A student at school attempts to work up the courage to ask out a girl that he likes who lives two doors down in his hall. There will be next to no talking, as facial expressions will be the main communicator used, but there will be some usage of words.

 

Activist Poster: Preserving local businesses. I will take photos of different abandoned businesses in the towns in my area, and in DC. I will also photograph places that take them out of business, megacorporations. Using Photoshop I will make a poster showing the evil of global corporations as they take down small businesses across America.

Between A Rock and a Hard Place

 

Lumiere Critique

The final Lumiere that Claire and I turned in was vastly different than what we originally planned on creating. Our original Lumiere idea was filming life in a dorm through a peephole of a door, however it was screwed up when a friend knocked on the door and rattled the camera. The peephole also didn’t offer much in the way of visualizing anything. The circle of the hole caused most of the shot to be black around the hole, making it a very small field of vision. In the end Claire and I abandoned that film and decided to walk down to the track and see if we could quickly find something that we could make a video of that would satisfy the project. We walked to the backstretch of the track and placed the camera on the ground, using the lens cover to prop the camera upward. We filmed for about 3 minutes, and we took the middle portion to create the Lumiere. This portion was the man running by, and the women walking by as they chatted.

Since we were scrambling to get it done I was pretty happy with the result, I thought it looked nice, especially with the person’s head being visible in the background as they continued around the track. What I would have done differently was to go to the track at a busier time, that way we could possibly get more people running and give it an even more natural feel.

I was very nervous showing my film in front of the class, mostly because we scrambled to make it and thought it would be harshly criticized. Luckily we were spared of any negative criticism, and once everyone started noting the positives in the film I felt much better about it.

 

I thought the Lumiere that Matt Rudkowski and his partner made was a very good example of a slice of life sort of mentality that is embodied in the creation of a Lumiere. I liked how the angle they chose was very direct, and that the crossbar caused a divide between the goalie and the rest of the field. At points the ball left the shot and the goalie would scramble around, it created a feeling of uncertainty and nervous apprehension. I thought that the usage of the net was a great way to set up this shot. With the net and goalpost between the camera and the field it gave it an appearance of being at the game and watching it from behind the goal, perched up against a tree as they said they were. What I thought didn’t work too well was that the goal that was scored was not that easy to see. The ball was kicked along the ground, and since the ground was not visible the ball disappeared and then everyone ran away. It was a let down not to see the goal, I was hoping that the ball would come directly towards the camera. If the camera was just a little bit lower so that the shot would have been visible then I think this would be as good of a Lumiere as they could have made.

Lumiere Manifesto Critique

I think the Lumiere Manifesto has an outlook on film that is similar to painters that paint oil paintings, or musicians who write classical pieces. The Manifesto says to me that it is trying to resurrect the style that the Lumiere brothers developed, much like painting in a way that Renaissance painters did, or writing music like that of Mozart or Beethoven. I feel like it is being done in an admiring sort of way, like making Lumiere’s is a way to pay homage to the first men to screen a film. I agree with this portion of the Manifesto, I feel like the idea of keeping the past alive through mimicking and admiration is a very positive way to find new things within the art, if it hadn’t been for Lumiere films many mundane tasks in society would be overlooked and disregarded.

I start to disagree with the Manifesto when it states that films should not have any editing, zoom, effects, audio or camera movement. The writer’s find these things to be distractions, however I find that depending on what it is the artist is trying to create these things can be necessary; for example a documentary that covers a person’s life will need transitions, one single shot of that would be a rather long and boring movie. The publisher’s of this website view Lumiere’s as films that are in a certain hierarchy above all others, due to the fact that they do not have any modifications to them. While it is great that they believe this, I think that movies as we view them today evolved out of what the Lumiere’s made, and although they are important for film history they shouldn’t be viewed as gods among films, and all movies with any type of modification shouldn’t be considered “insipid entertainment” or “propaganda”, movies with sound cause people to think too, and can invoke curiosity within viewers, even with it’s movement of the camera and audio. The writer’s of this Manifesto sound to me like they feel as if the Lumiere is a genre under attack by all others, which is not the truth. Lumiere’s can provide truth and meaning, as can all other films if they are made with the intention of presenting the truth, as we’ve seen a Lumiere can be manipulated, as any other kind of movie can.

Overall I guess I disagree with the Manifesto. Albeit I view Lumiere’s as an important style of movie in the history of the film industry, I don’t believe it ranks higher than any other kind of film. This probably comes from the fact that I like writing for film; and I cannot stand to think of all movies as a single shot with no more than a minute of action, with no audio or effects. I wouldn’t be able to survive if that was the case.

Lumiere – Around the Track