Notes from session 1
Workshop Goal
Think about our relationship with the media. From a physical relation to a camera to the process of received constructed messages. How this helps awareness helps to create more efficient messages and understand better media pieces.
Workshop Dynamic
-Review people’s videos
-Talk about the week assignment.
-Examples
-Questions
Participants will create 20 seconds video pieces following the guidelines specified for each weekly assignment. Besides the technical guidelines, there is a thematic aspect that follows the YoU Queens Museum core concepts. Care, Repair, Play, Justice, and The Future.
Each workshop will propose an independent video project.
Participants have to send the video to the instructor, to make the compilation. The deadline is Monday at 11 pm ET.
Surrealist poetry exercise
Christian Marclay
Phones
The Clock
Highlights
-You know more than what you think you know. Many of the things you don’t know are ok not to know.
-Paul Watzlawick Axiom 1: “One can not communicate”
-Analyzing Guide
-You learn by doing.
Video Analyzing Guidelines
1.-Watch the video.
2.-Watch it again and realize things that you didn’t notice the first time. There are some things for sure, maybe an action, detail, objects, sound…
3.-Review the following questions and answer them. Depending on the video some things might be left blank. In the process, you will develop your own questions.
Narrative Elements
What is going on?
Are you able to describe in a sentence what you just watched?
When is this happening? What is the relation between the characters? What’s the conflict?
What is the most important element? How is the mood of the scene?
Visual Elements and Editing
Is it indoor? Outdoor? Are people well lit? Big shadows, silhouettes? Is the camera close or far away from the action? Is a camera representing the point of view of a character? Is the camera still or moving? How much does the camera vary its angles and positions? Are actions happening outside the frame? How many people are on screen? Do things move at a normal speed? Is there order on how things are presented?
Audio Elements
Is there music? Dialogs? Both? Any other sound? Can the characters hear the music?
What does the music make you feel? What happens if we put different music over the images?
4.- As you answer these questions watch the video again. Watch it in a way that can give you answers. It is useful to watch it without music too.
5.-Remember the most important goal of this exercise is to be able to see the different elements that work together to tell us a story with a particular idea and point of view.
Videos week 1
Dziga Vertov
Haroun Farocki and Antje Ehmann
Francis Alys
Martis Scorsese
Links
Francis Alys
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/alys-the-nightwatch-t12195
https://francisalys.com/tornado/
Haroun Farocki and Antje Ehmann
https://www.labour-in-a-single-shot.net/en/films/
Good Fellas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NWEfWEdQY0
Dziga Vertov Man Movie Camera
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGYZ5847FiI
Alexander Sokurov Russian Ark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRm9pX5Re8o
Focal Length
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4164807
https://thesmartphonephotographer.com/smartphone-camera-focal-length/
Assignment 1
Single Shot Theme PLAY
Make a 20-second video in a single shot with the theme of PLAY. Play as you understand it. Some examples, think of play as… creativity, being open, fun, engagement, connection, openness, curiosity, empathy, game, interested more in the process, less in the result, attitude, discovery… etc.
Landscape orientation. Horizontal video.
There will be no editing.
Think about camera position, movement, and the perception of time. It will be real-time, real 20 seconds passing in your shot.
Is there a story? A beginning, middle, and end? Plow twist? Do you reveal something at the end? Is there a build-up? Is it very flat? Is it repetitive?
Is it observational? Are you trying to convey an experience? What does it feel like to be in the place you are shooting? Is the camera a character, participant, or somebody’s point of view?
You can use any camera or device you have access to. Don’t worry about size or format.
Once your video is shot, please drop it to the google drive link you will receive.