Film Developing Project

I thought that the film developing project was really fun on Thursday. Our group brought in different objects such as jewelry, paper clips, rice, salt, and marbles. It was very hard to see what exactly was going on the film strip and how it was going to look once it was developed, but I love having the freedom to just experiment and be creative. It's a relief to know you can just experiment and not worry to much about it coming out to look a certain way. I think that most of our film came out pretty well, but it was a little hard to tell. I thought that the contact printing was also cool. I was surprised at how well some of them came out. The only bad part about the film developing was the flickering of the lights on and off. The room goes from really bright to really dark and it's tough on the eyes. I really enjoyed it though, and I would be interested in experimenting with it in the future.

Sound Reading

Sound has always interested me, but the more I learn aboutit, the more overwhelming it is to me. The Chion article discussed the ways in which sound can impact images. I think that it's amazing how much sound can impact an image and make it a stronger experience for the audience. It is also very interesting to me how one sound can convey so many different things. And it's cool to see how many creative ways sound can be created to go along with a particular action or scene. This is something that I am interested in learning more about.

Film Developing

I was very excited about Thursday's class because we were developing film and that is something that I have always wanted to learn how to do. Of course we had to shut out as much light as possible, which is pretty hard to do. We blacked out all the windows and doors and then had one red light and a small flashlight with a red light. It was very hard to see at first and it took a while for my eyes to adjust. We just put small objects like pebbles and rice onto the film and then flashed on the overhead light for less than 1/2 a second. Then it was put it into the developer, the wash, the fix, and then the wash again. It was crazy to see how fast the film developed once it was in the developer! I couldn't believe it! The finished film looked really cool with the imprints of the objects. The process was really interesting. I'm excited about the next assignment, when each group gets a chance to develop a piece of film. It'll be interesting to see how it works and how everyone's film comes out!

Finished Project

We finally finished our film manipulation project! Jason and I put the final touches on our film this week. We experimented a little more with the bleaching. Actually, this time it went a lot better than the first time. The first time we put too much bleach on the film and pretty much turned it clear. This time we poured a little bleach into a bottle cap and used the end of a paintbrush to draw with the bleach onto the film. It looked really cool on the film and hopefully it will look even cooler once it is run through the projector. Some of our magazine transfers have started to come off of the film. Hopefully, they will not get messed up when they are run throught the projector. Splicing the film and putting it together went really well. Once we began to roll the film around the spool, it took longer than I thought it would. I am really excited to finally see this film shown. We have worked really hard on this for a few weeks now and I can't wait to see how it looks. I really enjoyed working on this project. It is something that I never really thought I would like. I just loved being creative and experimenting. It was a really cool project!

Animation Project

On Thursday we worked on our animation project. I was a little worried at first because I wasn't real sure how the process worked and I didn't know if we had the right kind of props and if they would work ok for what we were doing. We had gotten together to come up with a story and an idea for props, but it was kind of hard. There was a lot of cool stuff that we wanted to do, but we wanted to keep it simple because we knew that it was very time consuming and it was our first time doing anything like this. However, once we started setting up everything and putting our props together, I started getting excited about it. We kept coming up with more and more ideas as we went along. It was definitely a learning experience! I knew that it would be a slow-moving process and there is a lot to think about. It's a very detailed process and it was easy to forget about other props. We would focus on our play-doh man and toy cars, and completely miss the fact that our paper tree was falling over in the background! I am hoping that we got a little better as we went, but I'm just not sure. I was glad that we each got to switch roles so everyone could participate in each role. I also enjoyed using the types of cameras that we did and using real film to do this. At first I was dreading staying in class an extra 2 hours, but the time flew by! We had a lot of fun with this project and surprisingly enough we ended up leaving a little early. Even if we would've stayed the whole time, I wouldn't have minded. Although this project made me nervous at first, I am really glad that we got to do something like this. It was so much fun! Just like other things we have done in this class, we were free to be as creative as we could. I can't wait to see how the film comes out and edit this project. I might not ever get a chance to do something like this again, so I'm really glad that I had this opportunity.

Animation Article

I have never thought much about the process of making experimental cartoons. I have only seen one or two experimental cartoons, and I didn't like them very much. However, I would like to see more because I know there are many different types of experimental cartoons. The article compared the process of creating conventional Disney-style cartoons to experimental cartoons. Experimental cartoons lack the typical narrative form of storytelling and really reflect the presence of the artist. In Disney cartoons, the stories follow the traditional narrative pattern with a powerful musical score and lack a personal reflection of the artist. It was an interesting article and I would really like to see a few more experimental cartoons and see the comparisons between their process and the Disney process.

Work on Elements Project

I am excited about the elements project, but I am a little nervous because I am still learning with each of the activities we are doing. We also have a lot of film to work with so I know that it is going to be very time consuming. Jason and I started working on the project and decided which elements to do on each type of film and how to represent each element. We tried the bleaching technique and made a little bit of a mess out of it. We ended up bleaching a little more than we wanted to. So, I think that we need a little more work on that. I am not very good at drawing, so I am keeping the animations very simple. I think that I am most excited about the magazine transfer. I love the way that it looks onscreen and I love the creative process of it. We are coming up with creative ways to use the magazine transfers to represent the elements. We also tried painting with ink and oil but we definitely need some more practice with that. We didn't realize how long it would take the paint and oil to dry, so that set us back a little with our work. Overall, our project is coming along very well. We are learning as we go, but also becoming more creative as we go. I am really excited to see how it looks once it is run through the projector. I think that it will look really cool!

Workshop Day

I really enjoyed our second class. I was nervous about the magazine transfer activity. However, it turned out to be fun! I have never done anything like that, and I didn't realize how creative you can get with it. Unfortunately, some of the strips didn't get dry enough to run through the projector and started falling off, but what was shown of our class project was really cool! I am glad we were able to practice though, because I really wasn't sure how thin to cut the strips and how long to soak them in the water. I also wasn't sure if I got all of the residue off the tape before putting it on the film strip. I love the way it looks once it is on the screen. I didn't have a lot of time to work with the oil and paint on the film. To be honest, I couldn't tell a big difference when I put the oil on first, then ink, and putting the ink on first, then the oil. It was harder to paint with ink on the film than I thought it would be. It's hard to make specific shapes and designs with the paintbrush, but I also think that it gives the film a neat look. Again, I am glad that we got to practice with that first, because I wasn't sure how it would turn out in the end. I thought that it was a really good workshop day and good practice for working on our projects.