Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Opening Sequence

This is a sketch so far of what I am going for.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Concept of shooting

Here is an amalgamation of the types of camera treatments mentioned below.

Monday, March 17, 2008

I met a man, he was a good man...


So here is a review of what my midterm consisted of:
Deriving off of the idea that Los Angeles is a mecca f
or those who exist to escape and escape to exist, a goal of the narrative is to expose the city at its under exposed ephemeral points. Focusing on set typologies such as on ramps, bridges, and roof tops, collecting and meshing these elements formulate a new city/landscape, a new datum line removed from the weight of the concrete and pavement. Where I am now in this whole situation is figuring out what are the actions (still I know) as to what is driving the narrative without creating false constructions. I am trying to let the story evolve itself. The goal is to allow for this system of places to to realign themselves, shifting datum. Thus the agency overrides physical geography. Now where I need to focus on the Journey of Experience. Jean Micheal Crettaz, who said on my crit, said that so far I was being very Icon Obsessive. I agree with him completely.

But to continue on what I presented...

Characterization:
There are 3 main characters....


Woman from the east

She came from the desert from the land of bountiful room opportunity. Running from things she new, history.

Wants a new. Was counting on something. The journey was more for self awareness and to learn about herself than to really discover something new. Protected with her clothing. Worn with a new life ahead. Bright eyed and wrinkled.

She is very self involved.

CAMERA TREATMENT:close shots when we are in her gaze, even when it is of herself. Close shots like the western shot. Example is like the last scene in Once Upon a Time in the West.

Man from the west

He’s running way from the water. He rode in with with the tied. He was a drifter and looking to set some roots. He’s rugged and looking for some stability in his life. Salt stained breath. Sunned. Running away on those who gave up on him. He is ready to give up something to the city. He’s looking for something to count on him. Maybe once he’s needed he will understand how much he needs himself. He’s selfish in a different fashion. All he’s ever known is his self.

CAMERA TREATMENT: When we are in his gaze or looking at him, we are following along with a steady cam. Much like Children of Men.

The City.

You can never touch its true self. It’s moving. It puts you on the exterior shots. You see all of it but you have no idea what is really underneath it. What are the city’s wants? It’s been formed between the sea and the desert. SAND AND SAND waves and wants. We never touch the ground while we are in it. Nature is somewhere else. When nature hits the roof (roof top garden) the other parties are spun out of the city.


CAMERA TREATMENT: The use of the 360 camera comes in to visualize the gaze of the city.For example, the "All Seeing Eye" by Michel Gondry and Piere Bismuth referenced before. While we see 360, seeing everything, the all seeing eye, we miss things that happen while the camera is turning. The woman and the man walk in and out of the scene. The camera keeps moving thus the ground/view is never stable. It is always shifting. The city is alive and moving. In Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies, Reyner Banham claims that the language of design, architecture, and urbanism in LA is the language of movement. Granted he was referring to driving on the high ways, but where is the movement its own force for generating a new scape?

Now for the players:




RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN:

Woman and the City

The city is the place of hope. The city lets her in. The city opens its views/ faces to her and he becomes consumed with her self in the landscape more than the landscape that she can manipulate. The city has nothing to offer her if she cant give part of her self to it. She wont let her self break for their existence.

Man and the City

He’s ready to give. He’s lost most other things. The water took most of it away. City also brings hope and happier times. Some place where he wont be shoved away.

Man and woman

They see they both are in love with the city and think they might love each other. But she can’t see beyond herself. So he just lets her go. She moves to where he was from in regret to know what he did. It happens so fast and keeps moving so fast that she can accommodate or understand. So they never get it together . As I am revising the screen play.. they might never be seen together.


Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Opening Sequence


Linear movement towards the city. Filming of desert and images of life from out east intertwined. Pictures of water, good times, smiles, friends and a city that once was home. What is home? Where are you from? What happens in this new landscape, landscape of drift/shift/float? It starts with adrenaline, big brown eyes, and wanting lips. We approach the city, the skyline in the light. The sunrise glazes off the metallic mountains with the snow scraped ones toward infinity.

We then are in the city. We are zooming to the Rosslyn Hotels. We get to the intersection of 5th and Main. We stop linear movement and start zooming up towards the sky, towards the signs until we only see signs.

Cities and Desire

Despina can be reached in two ways: by ship or by camel. The city displays one face to the traveler arriving overland and a different one to him who arrives by sea. When the camel driver sees, at the horizon of the tableland, the pinnacles of the skyscrapers come into view, the radar antennae, the white and red windsocks flapping, the chimneys belching smoke, he thinks of a ship; he knows it is a city, but he thinks of it as a vessel that will take him away from the desert, a windjammer about to cast off, with the breeze already sweeling the sails, not yet unfurled, or a steamboat with its boiler vibrating in the iron keel; and he thinks of all the ports, the foreign merchandise the cranes unload on the docks, the taverns where crews of different flags break bottles over one another's heads, the lighted, ground-floor windows, each with a woman combing her hair. In the coastline's haze, the sailor discerns the form of a camel's withers, an embroidered saddle with glittering fringe between two spotted humps, advancing and swaying; he knows it is a city, but he thinks of it as a camel from whose pack hang wineskins and bags of candied fruit, date wine, tobacco leaves, and already he sees himself at the head of a long caravan taking him away from the desert of the sea, toward oases of fresh water in the palm trees' jagged shade, toward palaces of thick, whitewashed walls, tiled courts where girls are dancing barefoot, moving their arms, half-hidden by their veils, and half-revealed. Each city receives its form from the desert it opposes; and so the camel driver and the sailor see Despina, a border city between two deserts.

LA is not far from Despina. Cinema of bliss, cinema of desire... what Pellegrino had said. The lady is from the EAST, passes cross the land, has survived the desert of sand. The man is from the WEST, the sea, the beyond. Both came seeing the other and now they see each other in Los Angeles, where it is its other self. They can meet in their own heterotopia.






Monday, March 10, 2008

If Brown Bunny can get away with it....

New Grounds of LA. What happens in the new layer of flows.
What is it about Brown Bunny that makes it accessible.. enough to be credited. Granted I was not the biggest fan when I first watched it, but every time I think about it. It gains more credibility. It is about a self realization and a journey.

Isn't this story somewhere on those lines.

I know. I am grabbing in too many directions and spinning out of control at this point. I have left teasers I feel of methods on this blog as to what and how this story might start to resolve itself.
But I have no desire to start to interject a narrative that makes no sense, even if it is something based on my experiences and life. This is where the selfish ness comes back, thus Vincent Gallo reference.

I am having some anxiety of this thing becoming too abstract and artsy that its not going to make sense. Where do I draw the line. How do I edit this monster? It is all about perception. Is that ok?


Keep it simple? Can this be believable?

Friday, March 7, 2008

All you see is nothing...

"The All Seeing Eye, " an installation by Gondry/Bismuth is a perfect example of how I envision the camera work to play out. This happens on the roofs and then it is sped up time for the linear travel on the on ramps and bridges and piers.


you have to love them but you cant give them love...

We are closer to the end. Mid term is next friday and the following deliverables are required:

1. Treatment: 1-3 Page document (illustrated or not) describing your project. It is written in prose and in present tense.
2. Screenplay: 10-15 page document (in screenplay format) that IS your project before it is shot. It can be written in a number of ways, this will be discussed further.
3. Characterization and Location Document: document where all the characters and locations (sometimes locations are characters) are described, cast, outlined, illustrated, photographed.
4. Visual Abstract: Diagrams (2D, 3D, Space-based and time-based), Maps, Still Photography, Storyboards analyzing and describing relationships and qualities of the project. This is the basis of the aesthetic aspect of your project.
5. Proof of Concept: Short schematic film excerpt/s (10 seconds) that show the dynamic of the project, visual effects tests if any, camera work basis, editorial direction, costuming, coloring, post production aesthetic, etc.

I have started on my characterization and location document.
I have an actress for the Main role. I am looking for others. I have all the roofs that I need now.
And I am only going to use 4th street ramp and the 4th street bridge so there is some slide that these events happen.

Thinking about the rooftops and other places: After seminar with Ed Keller, I realized what was missing....

What is the agency of the roof tops? Im going to go and work this out and have it ready for you by tomorrow.




Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Movie Making Machine:










As all the pieces continue to fall (off points elevation), they are landing
in my lap in to a big pile. What if I make a machine to help collage and collate
the clips and images?

This script is supposed to work like the neurons and electrons in your brain.
Valentina Vasi and myself are making a movie making machine with processing.
Our amazing professor, Roland Snooks, has been helping us tremendously and also finds the
project to be quite interesting.

The plan is that each neuron is connected to a clip. the electrons move in between the neurons,
attracted to different assigned qualities.

Below is the code:

URL">

import kGeom.*;
import kRender.*;

kSpace space;
brain brain1;

int envSize = 250;

void setup(){
size(500,500,P3D);

brain1 = new brain();

space = new kSpace(this);
space.cam.jump(-600,-550,-500);

// loop to make random neurons
for(int i = 0; i < i =" 0;" neurons =" new" electrons =" new" connectlist =" new" i =" 0;" n =" (neuron)" i =" 0;" e =" (electron)" i =" 0;" n =" (neuron)" i =" 0;" e =" (electron)" neuronnumber =" _neuronNumber;" history1 =" new" historyconnections =" new" magnatude =" 30;"> 0){
// find neuron neighbors
// loop through all neurons and find the closest
neuron nCurrent = (neuron) neurons.get(neuronNumber);
float closestNDist = 1000000;
int closestN = 0;

for (int i = 0; i < ntest =" (neuron)" ntarget =" kVec.clone(nCurrent.pos);" ntestpos =" kVec.clone(nTest.pos);" ndist =" nTarget.distance(nTestPos);" same =" false;" j =" 0;" ntesthist =" (neuron)" same =" true;" same ="="" closestndist =" nDist;" closestn =" i;" conint =" {" neuronnumber =" closestN;" nhist =" (neuron)" magnatude =" magnatude" i =" 0;" nstart =" (neuron)" nend =" (neuron)" ln =" new" currentconarray =" (int[])" duplicates =" 1;" j =" 0;" otherconarray =" (int[])" pos =" _pos;" connectthreshold ="100;" pt =" kVec.clone(pos);" class="html">

Source:
URL">Title.


Saturday, March 1, 2008

filming test...proof concept.


Here are some test that I made with my little camera. The one is me trying to film while riding my bike down Broadway. (That was before the accident. I should have had been filming when I got hit.)

The other clip is concept of how the roof shots will take place. People will move in and out of the 360 pan and jump from roof to roof.

My main problem right now is working out the transitions. and thus the plots also.

Here is my treatment so far that I've sent to Juan:

1. Treatment. Write up of your project, in prose and in present tense. 1 to 3 pages. Illustrated or not.

Coasting through the gates of the city, the beacons of something great some unpronounced in the twilight air, we move from the streets up the walls. From the corner of 5th and Main Street in downtown, Los Angeles, we crawl up the building, and we keep going to the sky. This is where it begins. This is where we will never be again. This is where we will forget everything. This is where

Who are the in habitants of this of land world. People exist on roofs/piers/bridges/onramps.. the earth is dead. The earth comes alive in its moist appearance.. when its cool when its calm can we walk again.

Wild adventures and desires are expressed but no one leaves the safety zones. We are afraid from the shit. We are not the bourgeoisie.. we are aliens in this new landscape. Belonging to something.. Somewhere.

(Physical touch is how we jump.)

This is a collage of the roofs.. When ever something physical comes we touch. We fuck. We bleed. We lunch. A new images or stage is placed. There are observation decks. We change scene

We flip time the bridge or the ramp.

We transition with following the character from one roof to the next.

Why are these people here?

Scouting suicide posts? No.

Each roof is a new guy/girl/new personality chance. But nothing comes into play. Nothing is where she needs it to be. All ways cutting short.


They turn into a robot. And rust in the ocean.. an android… a heartless encasing.. pig intestines. . They gave and now they have nothing left. The city said they’d love them.. but they are left with nothing but empty openings. Floating.