The World Vs. The World

If the digital revolution/era had a favorite color it would be grey. I think it's wonderful that today people can be so in touch with strangers, form connections with people they might never have been able to 50 years ago. At the same time, while we are so connected I feel we are also completely disconnected.

In the case of the Molotov Man, I do think the photographer, Susan Meiselas, had every right to feel her photograph was losing its importance by being appropriated. I also feel that she had the right to be given credit for the original photographs. Without Susan being present at that moment, capturing that Nicaraguan man's emotion, Joy Garnett would never have created her own version of the Molotov Man. So without Susan, there would have been no catalytic element to Joy's art exhibit.

Joy had every right to take the photograph and recreate/appropriate Susan's photograph. Joy wasn't copying the photo and passing it off as her own. She was inspired by it and made an entirely new piece of art, using an entirely different medium from the original. What Joy did was not plagiarism or wrong.

Luckily this little situation seemed to just work itself out. I understand Susan's frustration that her image suddenly became this symbol for something entirely out of context from the original. But a little blurb in an art exhibit brochure would have taken care of that. I only think there is an issue with appropriating original work when the appropriator tries to take full credit for the concept/idea/medium/everything. And I do think that there are people out there who would, and probably do, do just that. Which is a shame, because why would you not want people to see and share the artwork (assuming it's art), and future works of art by the same artist, that inspired you to create something new, with your friends.

Wasn't there a similar problem with the red, white, and blue Obama faces? Where one person thought another person's style of artwork was awesome, so they mimicked it, maybe even copied it, onto the face of Obama. I'd be flattered if I were the original artist, people were wearing those shirts everywhere.

In the plain and simple, I don't think it's wrong or inappropriate, dishonest, plagiarism, illegal, to take any work by another person, recreate it and make it your own NEW and unique work. However, I do think it is fair to give credit to the original artist. I think it'd be neat to see something made by me, appropriated. It's cool how we all see certain things and think differently about them.

With the digital age making the world available to us, I think it's important that we try and retain our uniqueness, individuality, and find common ground within. I think appropriation of artwork is damn cool.

ps- The Molotov Man looks like Che Guevara, no?

Bolex For Life

I loved shooting off the Bolex on 16mm. Even more, I liked that we got to develop the film right after the shoot. I'm all about the instant gratification.

The whole process of loading the film, making sure it was feeding right, and taking care not to expose it too much, really made me feel the pressure. I can't even imagine the stress loaders had, when people only used to shoot on 16mm. If they fucked up, everything was screwed. That's some serious pressure especially when it comes to making features.

I'm also kind of sad that I'm a senior and this is the first time I've actually worked with 16mm. I feel like that should have been more a part of my education. However, I do understand it's expensive, and the funding for buying film stock just isn't present. So I'm very grateful that I did, in fact, get to work with the Bolex on Saturday, even if it was only for a little bit.

The planning of the shoot was crucial, since we only had 56 seconds to accomplish something. And I think our skit with the magic tent played out beautifully. It's weird to think that we created a complete narrative in that little amount of time. At some times I felt like I was channeling the Lumiere Brothers or Melies, to think that they used to only make films like we were on Saturday blows my mind. That's pretty incredible. Not only that, it's incredible how far filmmaking has come since then, a little over 100 years?! That's nothing!

After we were all done, I liked watching how the other groups used their time and how some of us came up with similar ideas, theatrics. It was really neat how we all helped each other out. I've really enjoyed to community we've built in our class and how we are all keen to pitch in where needed. Teamwork, fuck yeah!

I really want to know what our mystery prop is going to be. Maybe it's due to that mystery that I'm pretty excited about this project.

Working without a video camera actually isn't that big of a deal. Probably because I almost have a years worth of time put into making animations without any cameras. I don't want to just rest on my laurels though, I'm going to try and not use most of the techniques I already employ. I want this to be a challenge. I'm going to mainly try photocopying, making sunlight prints, and using my phone's camera (which isn't one of the fancy types and is my only digital camera), and probably a 35 mm camera of some sort.

I guess I'm a little nervous about the 48 hour aspect. Which could be tricky because I'm a perfectionist, which normally makes working fast, difficult. I think I'm already going to think out my concept and just fit the mystery prop in, whether it makes sense or not.