Dance-a-bore-us

For everyone out there who enjoys Dance-a-lorus, I apologize for this post in advance.  People have different tastes, and mine certainly does not match up with those who thought Dance-a-lorus was a good idea.

To put it simply, having a bunch of people dancing around in front of a film is just too much visual stimulation.  I couldn't decide if I was to watch the dancers or the film that was being projected behind them.  Either way, I wasn't getting the full experience of either, so I felt I was being gipped in both departments, especially when the film was a bit narrative in nature.  

The dancers detracted from the film, and the film detracted from the dancers.  In any case, I'm sure each would be interesting shown separately, but I just couldn't put it together and capture the entire experience.

For me, a cool concept would be to film a dancer doing something on screen, not necessarily dance, but it could be.  Then, in such a way make it seem as if they come out of the screen, or walk off screen, and then the dancer could walk on the physical stage with just a static background behind them.  This way, I would be able to watch the film when the film is playing, and the dancer when the dancer is dancing.

Overall, the synergy of dance and film really doesn't work for me.  I was quite let down by something that the festival really seems to hype up, and I was disappointed afterwards because I skipped a screening of shorts that I also wanted to see in order to go to Dance-a-lorus, which sucked.  I heard the shorts were great.  I will never get a chance to see them again because someone thought it was a brilliant idea to dance around in front of a film.

I know if I made a film I wouldn't want someone dancing around in front of it diverting the audience's attention, and I'm sure the dancers want the audience to focus on them as well.  The dancers have the upper hand because anything live action is going to outshine something on a screen.  Plus, the dancers are in the foreground, further detracting our attention from the film.  I go to film festivals to see films, and no one was dancing around in front of any of the other films, and you know what?  I enjoyed all of those films a hell of a lot more because of it.

Case and point:  don't dance around in front of films... unless it's Rocky Horror, it really just doesn't work.  

Dance-a-lorus?  Dance-a-bore-us.

Women Filmmakers - Fuck Yeah!

I saw so many amazing films this year at Cucalorus, but my two favorites were amazingly made by women filmmakers (fuck yeah!)

As a woman trying to make it in the film industry, it is hard to find other women filmmakers to look up to and aspire to. No doubt about it, this is a male dominated industry, so when a woman can make it, especially in a dominant position, it is very inspiring.

The first film I saw was Good Dick, a film written, directed, produced, and starring Marianna Palka. Both the film and the filmmaker were very inspiring.  This woman is a one-woman show.  She does it all.  This was her first script, she wrote it, then made it as the director and main character.  Now she is traveling around promoting and distributing it.  

This makes me believe that I can do that if I want too.  I can write a script, shoot it, and get it out for people to see.  Why am I not doing this right now?  I don't feel that I'm up to the challenge of creating a feature film quite yet, but I could do a short.  I have a script, so why am I not getting out there and making it?

I wish there was a class here at UNCW that explained how to get your film made.  I think one of the reasons I am so throughly impressed with this film was because of the talent that was involved (how do you go about getting professional actors to sign on to working with you?  Especially if you're an unknown young woman wandering around with your first script.)  Also, where do unknowns get the money to produce these films?  They have to have investors and what-not, but where do these investors  come from?  I have no idea where to find them, and I don't think many students do either.  Most student-films seem to be self-funded, which although encourages creativity, also hinders it in many instances.  

Also, when you're out on the film festival circuit promoting your film, how do you afford your costs of living then?  You're on the road, constantly traveling, spending money, but not working because you're busy traveling around to different film festivals to promote your film.  Where does that travel money come from?

Someone please explain to me how all of this happens.  It really comes down to being an unknown with no money.  How do I get people to pay attention to my work, my ideas, and then how do I get people to give me money to put my scripts, my ideas into motion?

Nevertheless, Marianna Palka did it, which inspires me to no end.

Another amazing film I saw directed by a woman filmmaker was The 27 Club -- an Erica Dunton film.  Erica really makes use of the Wilmington area, but also is able to get some amazing, pretty well known actors to work with her.  I'm sure it helps that her father owns a Camera and Lens store, which makes him privy to infinite resources in the Wilmington filmmaking community, but nevertheless, she made an amazing film.

Overall, it's great to see these women filmmakers creating such beautiful films.  It's an inspiration to me, and really lit a fire under me as well.  Although I will be abroad next semester, when I get back I'm going to make my film.  There's nothing aside from money that's stopping me, but low-budget films work well.  I've seen a lot of really good things come out of the Film Studies department with little to no budget.

Either way, these women inspired me to keep going, to not give up, and that women really can have an impact on the film community at large.

Film/Video class no longer allowed to use either

I missed the blog topic for last week, which was ideas for the 48-hour video race.  Since this week is supposed to be a free-write, I am going to use this opportunity to talk about ideas that I had for the 48-hour race.

I found it very interesting being in a film/video class, and having our final project be one where we can't really use either.  However, this class has also been all about creativity and interpretations of different things, and this race will certainly cause us to be creative, use our wiles, and test our focus.  

My first idea was to use my digital camera to make a stop-motion animation.  The thought was that taking a picture would be pretty much the same thing as clicking off a frame or two of a Super-8 camera.  The only thing with this is that putting those hundreds and hundreds into final cut and arranging them correctly could be quite time consuming, but I could manipulate the pictures to have them last longer than one frame, maybe three, in order to expedite the process seeing that 48-hours is not a very long time to create a film, especially without a camera.

If worse comes to worst in this situation, my digital camera also has a video setting where I could record bits of video.  Something interesting would actually be to do a bit of the stop-motion using still images, and then transitioning to video for a bit, and then transitioning back into the animation.  Something like this could be really trippy looking, which seems to sort of be a main goal of this class.  Everything we do looks like nothing I've ever seen before, and it's all a little trippy, and I like it.

At the beginning of the semester someone asked me if what we did in this class would be helpful to anything but experimental filmmaking.  At first I wasn't sure, but as the semester progresses, I see that this class is more than just experimental projects, but projects that challenge us, that force us to look at things in different ways, put limits on us, and force us to problem solve when certain guidelines are laid down.  These skills are certainly useful in all types of filmmaking, be it narrative, documentary, or experimental.

This class has also given me opportunities that I never would have gotten in most other classes.  I had my first experience with actual film, and loved it!  This class has really opened my eyes to the opportunities available, and the infinite possibilities that film has as a medium and as an experience.

I'm looking forward to the 48-hour video race.  The restrictions are stiff, but I think because of that, all of our films will be that much more exciting, interesting, and unique.