Michael Renov’s discussion of the term essayistic in nonfiction autobiographical film and video lended a lucid and meaningful context to approach the cinema of Soon Mi Yoo. The essayistic is less concerned with the categorization and classification of genre, but rather to analyze the methods of the creation of meaning. “Rather than assemble a model to which a series of works might be forced to conform, the intent is to ask how and under what conditions meaning is produced in certain texts” (Renov 09 col2). Essayistic elements are very prevalent in both films of Mi Yoo that we viewed, in the nonlinearly progressive construction, both in the strong reliance on the expressive function of associative dialectic between visual imagery and sound.
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1 CommentThe following is a discussion of the process of creating my screen test self-portrayal project for Mediaworks weeks 6 and 7, which was titled “solus in tenebrarum,” (Latin for “alone in the dark”) I realize it is horribly pretentious to name your work with occulted Latin phrases which few people but yourself will understand, but I offer no apology. Tenebrae (nominative form 1st declension feminine noun) has other implications than the literal interpretation of darkness or night. According to the definition in The Bantam New College Latin and English Dictionary, the definition can include: darkness, night, blindness, dark place, haunts, unconsciousness, death, lower world, obscurity, ignorance, or a gloomy state of affairs. This word seemed to fit my subject matter of choice with excellence.
Speaking of the subject matter, my creative process for this project was characteristically excruciating. I usual when working alone, I was able to engage in obsessive overanalysis and anxiety filled self-critique. As usual in my process, I started with a stylistic approach to guide my conceptual ideas. I realize this is quite opposite a normal approach to media creation, but I think attention to the visual and aesthetic components of a work is an essential part of success. I wanted to use footage of caves I had gathered from my home in Southeast Alaska during the summer months of 2005, in order to accentuate the themes of fear, anxiety, social isolation, and emotional introversion that I planned to address in the voiceover component of the video.
As is also characteristic of my process, many of the subtleties and nuances were not planned, but added intuitively during the process of creation. This is true of the childlike voice accent in the primary voiceover, the addition of the whispered sub-voiceover, and the entire ending, which I will get to in a moment.
I had no consideration for those “readerly” people when I created this video; the complexities are so great and the ambiguities so abundant that the majority of meanings and interpretations gleaned will likely originate with the viewer. This does not bother me, in fact I would prefer it this way, in particular with this genre of autobiographical self-portrayal, with which I am very much less than comfortable with, especially with myself as subject.
Jed Smith – 2006-02-20
Notes for a Film W6
Sadie Benning
The videos of Sadie Benning are an innovative anomaly that creates a unique language of expression. To some extent this innovation is dictated by her technological medium, the Pixelvision camera. As her working style evolved, it began to intersect with the precepts of the autoethnographical form of cinematic expression, though she was certainly not consciously creating her work within the confines of this definition.
The films of Jay Rosenblatt are constructed so that they maintain universal appeal, and a sense of earnest sincerity, even while using found footage to construct the visual components of his work. He does this through carefully calculated choices in the construction of his films. These choices are evident in his usage of audio and other tools of expression to evoke a certain metaphor or audience reaction. All of these elements of Rosenblatt’s approach contribute to the creation films which are at a base level intended to challenge and inform the perceptions and assumptions of his audience.
(Download file“>download the paper in word format)
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2006-01-23
Jed Smith – Notes for a Film
Week 2: Richard Fung
The work of Richard Fung is much more in line with the idea of a confessional than the work of Su Friedrich. In Su Friedrich’s films, our sense of her identity is obfuscated and mediated through stylistic and aesthetic aspects of her artwork, however in the work of Richard Fung, we are given what seems to be a very clear, open, and sincere sense of who he is. This difference is brought about largely by his intensely personal stylistic approach, accomplished by his use of text on screen, and confiding playfulness and apparent sincerity.
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Notes for a Film: Week 1
Jed Smith – Mediaworks 2006
One of the most striking things about Su Friedrich’s work is her stylistic innovation of separating the semantic and visual components of her films in the creation of meaning. This characteristic is common to all of her films which I have seen, though it is accomplished in different ways as her filmic style evolved. The effect on the viewer of this style is constant however, in that it allows audience to engage with the film text more subjectively and personally than would otherwise be possible. The separation of the two components that create meaning for the viewer is a very interesting idea, and is something I would like to experiment with in my own work, possibly in new ways.
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The Bees is the first seriously involved video project I did after the acquisition of my first camcorder (a Panasonic PV-GS150) in late June 2005. Created over a period of time from late July 2005 to late August 2005, it is a tale of repression, rebellion, and occultish artifice starring the central species of the mighty and powerful Bees, and their suppressed yet gothicly burly underlings, the Flies.
The process of creation of this video is somewhat interesting to note. All footage was ‘collected’ completely independant of this ‘production’. The story was actually created and sequentially evolved out of the seed ideas of the contents of the footage I had previously shot. For example, the idea of the “Omnipotent Artificial Consciousness” / Brain-in-a-Chamber-Pot was concieved and added into the script after the footage was shot, which was when I was about halfway completed with it.
Looking back on The Bees, there are some technical elements which I could certainly do better (notably, sound design and mixing!), however I am quite enamored with the amount of nuance and obfuscation in the story. I also love the stylistic approach of synchronizing audio and video, in both cuts and motion within the frame. This is evident throughout The Bees in the cutting, and to a more obvious degree in the fly breakdance scene. Note that this represents an imperfect initial exploration of this technique, and that I have honed and perfected my approach and skillls in later projects, such as the music video I did for edIT’s track “Laundry.”
The editing was accomplished in Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5, and various video effects were done in Adobe After Effects 6.5, with sound capturing and processing done in Sony Sound Forge 8.0.
Cinematography, sound and video editing, voice talent, video effects: Jed Smith
Music by Autechre, µZiq, End, Aphex Twin, Aix Em Klemm, and John Dowland.
Note: This video will require the most recent version of the Adobe Flash Player to work.
If anyone is interested in seeing other video projects I have been working on outside of Mediaworks, there is a compilation of all of them under this extended entry. They are ordered chronologically.
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