URL for my HTML Haiku

http://fmundergrad.hunter.cuny.edu/~knudsens/

Animation

Turtle Power!!!

Blog 3: Production Notes

I really enjoyed working on our project where I interviewed Christine Kitson and then shot video of her and edited it all together to make one cohesive piece reflecting on her trials as a mishap prone child. My favorite part was the editing. I've used final cut before but never this in depth and I know the knowledge I've acquired is going to come in hand in my film making career. I wasn't necessarily pleased with the initial interview and maybe I would have done it over but there was a good reaction from the class to my audio so I'm happy with it. I don't think I suppose I'm a little more attentive to editing now when I watch a film. I think the project would benefit from our ability to film while we interviewed because its always nice to have a few shots of the actual interview. In a perfect world I would have really liked to get some of Chrisitnes home movies from when she was a kid but unfortunately it wasn't possible.

Childhood is Dangerous

Here is my completed project. Enjoy!

Blog Post #2: Sound-Image and Image-Image Relationships

For this blog assignment, I chose a clip from the film “The Science of Sleep” by Michel Gondry, in which the main character, Stephane, is dreaming. Sound plays a very important role throughout the film but particularly in this scene. As he falls asleep the music is lullaby-like and then switches to a fast punk rock when the dream takes an aggressive turn. One of my favorite things Gondry does in this moment is make dialogue unclear from the people other than Stephan. They merely mumble incoherently and even that is not exactly in synch with the image furthering the impression of being asleep. The images in this clip are unlike any other film, except maybe Gondry’s others. At almost all times we have an image within an image through the use of green screens and superimposition. We have a huge contrast of color when Stephan is dreaming, but also a big contrast in the kind of film used in foreground and background so even the contrast is contrasting. Gondry uses a handheld for most of the shots in the dream which makes it not only less organized but more personal. The cuts in the scene are pretty fast, as in a real dream one can never focus too long and the longest shot of the clip is in fast motion. As hard as it is too imagine with such a playful director as Gondry, his cuts are not so obvious. We are more into the scene than we are aware of his hand.

The Science of Sleep - Dream Sequence

Interview Audio, So far

Here is the link to my video on YouTube of my work so fatr with the interview.


Kristine Interview (Audio)

What I Hear

Walking in my neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn I can enjoy something not often associated with New York City, a relative quiet. But fall is here with a vengeance and the brisk wind rustles madly through the trees. I choose the more arborous blocks so that I can take this in for as long as possible, without any stopping, or doubling back because New York City is all about moving forward. Aside from traffic, including the too often occurring overly revved engine, the sound most predominant in this area is that of construction. Hammers and saws echo down every avenue, street and boulevard and whether this is the sound of gentrification or progress depends on whose ears they reach. I make my way past a barrage of one sided conversations as young and old hold invisible conversations while holding one ear. I step down into the subway and my ears are happy to hear an old friend. A man playing banjo croons a song perhaps more suited on a smoky mountaintop but I could never imagine it anywhere else but here, bouncing sadly off of the subterranean tile. An emotionless woman tells me that my train will be arriving in approximately four minutes. I have a hard time trusting her because I’ve been burned before. The train comes as promised, in a crescendo of screeching metal on metal. The cadence chucks towards us followed by a draft of ancient, trapped air. The train comes to a whining but sure stop and its doors open with a heavy thud of acceptance.

The Museum of the Moving Image

I really enjoyed our trip to the museum of the modern image. The highlight for me was one of the first things we saw, the room that demonstrated how we perceive motion using a strobe light flashing on many different sculptures. The result was what looked like stop motion occurring right in front of you and that may have been one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

I participated in the flip book demonstration with two of my friends. We were told to move around in front of a white screen while a camera took a bunch of photos of us. We were later given a printout of those photos to make into a flip book. This demonstrates the illusion of motion when viewing a series of single images in rapid succession. Modern film still uses this same essential concept.

Seeing all of the different cameras lined up chronologically was great. Our guide explained to us how Technicolor worked which is by splitting the image with a prism and then exposing three different lines of film simultaneously, then dying those film strips.

There was an area showing how sound effects were implemented and I was laughing at the fact that the movie Titanic actually used an elephant for a falling smoke stack, something I probably never would have picked up on, which is why it’s so impressive.

All in all a great trip, I have since made plans with other friends to go back and take more time.

Emissions Info Graph

The countries represented are USA, China, Russia, and India. I choose some of the basic ideas associated with them to question their seriousness about reducing emissions. I'm pretty sure Dev Patel is British..... Their is a Sausage on a bed or sauerkraut looking at them condescendingly, as Germany is probably the most advanced country in the way of emissions reform.

Postage Stamp Project

Mr. Melon goes to Lunch

See this guy gets it

Hunter Still Photo Project

                            I chose this one for purely compositional reasons

     I wanted to get a larger group of people of with the building complimenting rule of thirds

          I thought this was a nice intimate shot with the building providing nice background

Ethics Questions

What is your favorite piece of media you saw recently?
The film Anti-Christ by Lars Von Trier

How do you feel after you saw it?
I was amazed at how pulled in I was. I didn't really gather a message from the film, but an emotional state. The way Von Trier established this world of terror and emasculation was intense

Did you think or understand anything new?
I felt a connection to the main character and anyone else who felt the same way after wards. I'm not convinced the director had the same ideas as I ended up with, but something close to it I'm sure

What do you think the piece says about the world, about the way people live in it?
I'm not sure if it has anything to say about the world as a whole and any of its conventions. It seems like this film speaks to individuals, not masses. If it does speak, it speaks of a trapping fear of a lover, and how few things can envelope like that.

Do you think this media is ethical or has ethical concerns about it?
It has certainly has come under scrutiny for being misogynistic. I don't agree with those sentiments. Anyway I believe in free speech, especially in a privately produced film like this. There are plenty of things I don't agree with, but I'll argue against them intellectually, not try to have them silenced or defame their creators.


What would unethical media be? Is there a difference between media that is 'about' moral or
ethical notions, versus media that is not about ethical issues, but where the maker has taken
them into account in the making?

Well I suppose so much of it is intent and form of media. I think if you make something and call it a documentary the film makers commentary can still be there but should be much less than a fictional film about a topic. As far as intent, we can form our own opinions from obvious factors, but we can never really speak for the media makers so it's kind of moot. I'm not really sure what the last question is asking.

Artist Statement

I have been interested in the complexity of human emotion since my childhood. When I was 18 I joined the military and spent a year being taught Persian by several Afghan instructors with a visit to the Middle East following closely thereafter. My experiences during that time and since have taken my initial fascination with people’s inner desires and bred a new interest in how people fit them into what is expected of them socially, academically, professionally, etc. I first started writing with a theater group in Omaha, Nebraska where I was drawn to the power of visceral storytelling. I feel approaching art with the basest of feeling is the most compelling approach and can lead to a well developed intellectual experience. My artistic goals are to become as proficient as possible in all aspects of film production so I may one day produce my own films in their entirety. I look forward to a future in this form where technology allows me and everyone else to create their stories exactly as they envision them, from concept to execution. I am currently in the conceptual phase of a series of short films dealing with my personal experiences that I hope will eventually form one complete story.

Test Post

This is a test post for what I can only assume will be the most amazing, revealing blog ever done for a 100 level course.

Sincerely,
Steve