I like chaos, anything and everything I say and do is set forth with the intended goal of causing as much chaos as possible. I do not put any planning into my films. When I shoot I do zero planning and do the first thing that comes to my head. When I edit I add random effects with no thought of how it will look. I will through around a thousand technical terms with no regard. The spirit of dada embraces my every step. There is no real Aaron Grinberg. None of this true and all of this is true, hold both of those ideas as equally factual in your head. Now, that I have you primed let me introduce.
This marking period I set out to make films without actors. My first thought in this challenge was to simply make a video essay, based on my comparative study for IB film. In this essay I argue towards a metamodern prospective on film criticism. This philosophy guides all my narrative and analytic ideas, with my style occasionally playing into some bothandistic ideas. For this video essay my goal was to make a clear definition of my prospective towards marking a films quality, with the idea that I would eventually start making film criticism videos in mind.
During this marking period I also explored the ideas behind expressionism. When editing our typical approach is to make choices based on intentional purpose, but in taking an expressionistic editing style I simply let clips land where they wanted to with effects that were added and adjusted at a whim. Once something looked correct I would move on. Immediate impulse is the primary guiding factor. Typically, a primary part of the enjoyment of expressionism is by imagining the process that made these pieces; we like Jackson Pollock and Cy Twombly not because their work is beautiful but because there is such a clear and interesting process behind each of their paintings. In film there is less of a capacity for this so I compensate by attempting to make my work look as intriguing and distinct as possible. My goal is to have brief moments of perfection through the aesthetic beauty of these videos.
Section 1--Video Essay
Planning- In making this video I knew I wanted to do something with Paul Thomas Anderson or Kubrick as I had focused more on my Charlie Kaufman side of my tastes for the comparative study. Then as I was throwing writing some ideas on a page the first idea was to focus on PTA's use of sound design in relation to the content of his scenes. While watching films/researching for that project I went on a rant to the wall about the problems of subjective critique, then it hit me. From that original rant I wrote a script using the two column format. For the script I did not do any specific research as I already had what I wanted to say in my head. I recorded the narration shortly after I was done writing. Then I found and dowloaded clips from YouTube for the video component. For editing I simply used the clips that were dowloaded and pulled in more material as was needed. Since I had already made a video essay, the entire process was smooth.
Producing-
Evaluating-
In comparing the amount of work that went into this project to the final product, I cannot say I am pleased. The video is just a bad video essay. It is not interesting and does not make any distinct points. It's too long for the final conclusion. There are a few moments that I present information and move on without giving the proper analysis. The essay manages to be both thin and dense at the same time, a special combination of trash that even I am impressed I was able to make. This film is only impressive in how it is bad. The essay is not bad in any egregious way, rather it is boring and without substance. Ultimately, I would consider this project neither good or bad, its kinda just grey. Boring-ok is always worse than interesting-bad, and this video is definitely the latter.
Section 2--Expressionists
Planning- There was no planning for these, the first was done on a whim, the next as an interesting way to do an English project (included as it shows a progression of style), and the last a product of a riff session with Ed. These were art for art's sake. As described in the opening there was little thought that went into these, rather they were a simple search for interesting looking compositions. Yucky Melt was made by editing/manipulating my other films. Syntax was made almost exclusively from clips pulled from YouTube. And Editing Genius is a combination of those two collection strategies, with Yucky Melt being one of the pieces used. These films were all made under casual conditions, most of Editing Genius was done while also watching Community. I view making films like these as a relaxing activity that has something to show at the end. While there is definitely some influence of Eric Andre as well as Tim and Eric in these, I would consider them fairly unique to me.
(Panic Satanic was made after the presentation was due, however I felt it was the best of this series and wanted to include it. As it was made after the presentation due date, I do not comment on it in the written sections)
Producing-
Evaluating-
I generally like all of these films. If I had to rank these I would go Syntax, Yucky Melt, Editing Genius. Syntax is the only one that I think is particularly good. If I has to guess that is a product of that song being designed towards this style of editing with moments where the visuals can match the energy of the song. Editing Genius has the problem that when you mix all the colors together you get a terrible brown, similarly when you mix a thousand clips with each other nothing can really be seen. Furthermore, I don't think that is a great song. Editing Genius does have some of my favorite individual compositions, but none of them are really seen well. The thing with these films, because they were all pumped out with about 4-8 hours spent on them total, I am far more ok with them not being great as I can just make so many.
Integrating:
Video essays are not a form I can vibe with. They take so much time to do well and its extremely noticeable if the film is less than perfect. In the future I am going to stay away from projects like this and go more towards weird, abstract stuff. I did not learn anything from that project beyond my dislike for such projects.
Yucky Melt opened the Pandora's box of my experimental filmmaking. These expressionistic films are fun and relaxing to make. I will continue doing films like these on a more casual level as long as I have an Adobe subscription. On a stylistic level I will incorporate this ultra-abstract representation into my more formal pieces as an interesting element. In Mark's Thon video I inserted a slice of expressionism to make the thing more interesting. Insertions like that will be done more in future projects.
In the coming marking period my first project will be an experimentation with CGI and Animation as a music video for one of my favorites of classic HGO: "The cat, My cat."
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