4-Wheel War Pony: Q&A

What did you think? Woah .. the world of abstract and experimental film is a place that pushes your mind to analyze and understand the stuff that is thrown at you .. you kind of have to force yourself to make sense of what you are watching, especially when you arn't provided with a background on the piece before hand. I think that this video was pretty cool, the director's intent was pretty obvious to me and it had an indie, home-video sort of feeling to it. 

What is Dustinn Craig trying to communicate with this film and do you think he was successful? With this film, Dustinn Craig was trying to portray the culture of the Native people. It shows how they have absorbed modern culture into their traditions, yet still managing t

o retain their way of life. 4 Wheel-War Pony uses skateboarding footage that was captured by some of the core members of the native community, to express how their culture is very much a culture in motion and transition. Due to the fact that I could tell what Dustinn Craig was trying to communicate, I would say that his project was successful. But even if I

 had no clue what this video was about, I still think that viewers would have some sort of empathy and understanding towards the feelings he was trying to project. 

What did you find interesting? What did you have trouble with? I found the whole thing pretty interesting, I guess something specific would be the use of split screening. I also liked the way they used stills to create a few sequences. I had trouble understanding the purpose of the random pumpkin-man graphic, but it added to the whole abstract-ness of the video.

I think one of the main elements of an abstract film (that is also used here), is the lack of narration, and presence of music underlining the film. I think it's really important for an abstract film to not have any dialogue or narration of any kind, because that way the audience can come up with their own ideas and perceptions, and the director can get more creative and symbolic in the way that he/she creates each shot.

This Is What The World Is For: Making Electricity

MGMT are a dynamic duo hailing from Brooklyn, New York. Previouisly titled "The Management", Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden accidentally sumbled upon something beautiful while experimenting with noise rock and electronics, eventually settling on what Spin Magazine calls "their current brand of shape-shifting psychedelic pop."

MGMT is the compilation of two quarky musical geeks and their intruments (digital and not), expressing their love for drugs, dirty dancing, and the madness of the world. The video for Electric Feel is a perfect example of the ride they take you on with their edgy, psychedelic-electronica.

Because MGMT is an indie band, and I get the feel that they are still in a very experimental stage of their careers, I would classify this video as an experimental abstract. I love it. The song is one of my favorites from the band, and when I saw the video for the first time I just couldn't tear away. The song itself has such a sexy, dance-and-love-life feel to it, and the video promotes just the same. Alot of people would say that the "electric girl", and this video is all about acid, and about sex, but I really don't agree. I think that it definitely has some sexual reference, but mostly I think that this video is simply about showing life as a crazy good time with all the crazy good feelings you get from love, music, fun and dancing. I think that what you see is what you get, and it doesn't make perfect sense and it doesn't show a hidden message, but that's alright because sometimes life is just meant to be fun.

While watching a video on youtube about the making of this video, Andrew comments on the inspiration of the song.

"This song is about umm .. a woman, who comes from the amazon rainforest who has the power to shock people with electricity, that runs through her veins. She could be part eel, or alien or something."

The concept for this video was also created by Andrew. In his own words,

"I want to have a hillbilly jamboree, that mixes a Snoop Dog video with psychedelic cartoons & some animatronic Chuck-E-Cheese s--t."

Genius.

I think that all the people working on this video must have had a wicked time. Watching the 'Making Of' video, the director talks about how the crew consisted of some of his very best-friends from all over the world, and how the project felt celebratory, like creating a "profound silliness", with a reunion of his favorite people. I feel like working on a video with that type of atmosphere would be so much better than any sort of big hollywood production. The pressures are still there, the late nights still have to be put in, but you are surrounded by people you know and people who you get to really know, combining efforts into making something true and funny and wonderful.

My favorite part of the video is when the moon falls from the sky, and it is cut open and moon blood spills out and all over everyone. A giant helium balloon was blown up to create the moon, and digital effects were added in later. A large focus of the production of this video was on green-screening, and another very important part was the appearance of the Rock-afire Explosion.

The RAE was an anamatronic animal band that used to play in Showbiz Pizza Place (orlando, Florida) in the 1980's and 1990's. Rock-afire was sort of like Chuck-E-Cheese, the main difference being that they could actually mimic playing their instruments, and could create real-looking facial expressions due to the use of latex masks as opposed to plastic and foam. The show also used alot of props and lighting effects which heightened the amount of perceived movement on stage. The Rock-afire Show was overtaken by Chuck-E-Cheese in 1991, but a large fan base continues to exist.

The band's brief appearance in this video helps to keep their memory alive, and they were the perfect piece of the Electric Feel puzzle. Original producers from the RAE show were available to assist in the syncing and programming of the band to MGMT's music. This aspect of the video is, to me, really interesting because the band incorporated old forms of entertainment into their video, mixing robots from the 80's with modern day editing and effects.

Most music videos are made to convey a certain message or moral, but this video was created just for kicks and just to create the vision that Andrew saw. And thats totally alright. I don't think that there has to been a deeper meaning for everything in life. When Ben is flying through the sky on a motorcycle, it doesn't really need to symbolize anything other than it looks cool to fly through the sky on a motorcycle. This is a wicked video that I love to watch over and over again, and from a filmmakers point of view it has fantastic art direction and use of technology.

Do You Renounce Satan ?

The baptism montage in "The Godfather" is a pivitol part of the film, and also of the development of Michael Corleone's character. This scene in the film finishes the transformation from the Michael we saw in the beginning of the film, to the Michael that becomes the new 'Godfather'. At the beginning, Michael didnt want to have anything to do with the family buisness. He set himself a little bit apart from the rest of the family .. and after the completion of the baptisimal scene he completely transforms from the youngest son to the Godfather.

The irony of this scene is that Michael is swearing in to be godfather of the child .. to protect him and love him, renounce satan and do the work of god. Parallel to this baptism taking place, Michael has arranged the deaths of all the other gang heads, swearing himself in as 'The Godfather'. The contrast from the peaceful scenes in the church to the violent and chaotic murder scenes suggest alot about what Michael has become. Because these two events happen at the same time, it is almost like Michael is allowing such violence into the home, something that Vito would have prevented.

The duality of this scene captures the nature of Michael's new life. It foreshadows a large change in the way that Michael will act as Godfather, compared to his father before him.

The use of montage for this scene helps to forshadow the double life that Michael will lead as head of the family.

Her Morning Elegance

**Update** I just realized that Samantha commented on this exact same video ... Im tempted to delete this post & start something new .. & yet I probably won't.

This video is a gem that has been spreading around the internet like wildfire.

Oren Lavie used stop motion to create a video for his song, "Her Morning Elegance". Some fun facts about this video:

• The video was shot all stills - roughly 3225 still photos for the entire video, using one camera, hanging from the ceiling for the main body of the movie.


• It took 4 weeks before shooting to create an animated computer generated storyboard for the video, with 3d dummies for the characters.


• It took only 2 days of shooting for the live actors on set to re-create the 3.5 minute computer sequence, frame by frame.

I really enoy this music video and I think that it was well done! The stop motion technique was a great idea, and Oren Lavie was able to use it and create a smooth, unique work of art. What I found to be successful is that he was able to create a whole world on that one bed, an experience that keeps you interested in whats going to happen next. While watching the video, I read into it as an expression of dreams. When you have dreams you travel and experience without ever leaving your bed. You are tucked in to a most serene and peaceful place, and you can run and dance and have adventures without ever leaving your sheets. You are travelling and exploring your own mind, which can be a scary and confusing place, but can also be a space of calmness and elegance.
I really liked how Oren Lavie used white as the main "backdrop", if you will, and then contrasted with black. When the black pants & shirt first appear, I thought they were meant to be the girl's shadow. The black clothing is then taken by a man, and throughout the video he is shadowing, dancing and interacting with her. The white and the black looked good together, and I feel like it gave the guy a deeper meaning. Maybe the fact that he was wearing black which is the ultimate contrast of white, means that he was a defining part of the dream, an element of the dream sticking out for the girl more than anything else. Then I realized that this man is probably her love, and she dreamed him in to her serene and peaceful place amoung the white sheets because of his significance in her life and heart. If Im right about that, I think its pretty cute.
I could tell that the production of this video must have taken alot of effort and attention to detail, because so many things change in each frame. For example, around 2:12, you see that the pillows are moving at the same time that the girl is jumping across them, and a shirt is flying through the background. Each of these items had to be moved in precisely the right way to get them all to be animated in sync, which seems like such painstaking work but that definately had great results.

I love it when you watch a video, hear music or see a work of art and it inspires you to create something new, something outside the box. Thats just what this video did for me. It was a great example for me of stop motion, and when I was looking things up about the video I learned alot about the production of a video such as this, and it really sparked some interest. Kudos to Oren Lavie on a job well done, I give this video two thumbs up.

Location, Location, Location

These two short podcasts have opened my eyes to the extents a truly passionate director will take to create the perfect picture. From watching the two podcasts, I immediately came to the conclusion that director Baz Luhrmann was a man with a vision. In this vision he saw his epic "Australia" as a sweeping, hollywood romance, but with a breath of life through authenticity. This authenticity came from shooting on location, in the vast outback of .. Australia!

Shooting on location is truly a seperate breed from studio filming. Especially with a film with such magnitude, there are many different elements that have to be taken into consideration with the shooting.

One of these elements would be transportation. When using a studio, it would be quite easy to get the cast, crew, gear, props, trucks etc. all in one spot and at the studio, as studios are usually easily accessable and in populated areas. When filming on location, the sets are almost always in remote or exotic places, much more difficult to get to. In "Australia", the studio shots were filmed in Sydney, but all of the location shooting was done far from civilization, proper roads and infratructure, and even paved roads. Another element in shooting on location would be the location itself. In a studio you can control everything from the lighting to the weather, the climate, sound and the precise way in which props and backdrops look. When you are out on location you are exposed to the elements of nature, and nature isnt always in the mood to provide a perfect shot. The sun moves all throughout the day casting different shadows and changing the temperature. Winds affect the audio and the look of the set. An airplane flying overhead could cause whole shots to be ruined, or stopped. Above you can see a shot of the set that had to be created on a marsh. A house like this wouldnt normally be built on a marsh, but because of the location set designers had to make do. There are many other factors that have to be taken into consideration whilist filming on location, such as getting permission to film on these very different pieces of land, and organizing elements related to the location (for example all of the cattle, horses etc.)

In my opinion, the fact that Baz Luhrmann decided to venture out into the depths of Australia instead of just creating a mini-outback in a studio shows that he was willing to go above and beyond to make this film truly epic. He could have done everything in a studio, where it would have been much more comfortable, cost-efficient and convienient, but in the podcasts he talks about how he wanted to experience the location so as to better depict to the audience. I think that shooting on location is so cool. Even though the sets are far away and subject to the elements, it just doesnt get any more real. And i think that the audience can feel that. The cast can slip into character in an authentic place, and beautiful shots can be captured without special effects, paintings or greenscreens.

Its just so much better than a backdrop

I really enjoyed these podcasts. I always like seeing the super-wide shots of majestic parts of the world, but I never really put much thought into just how much more of a step it is to film on location. I havnt seen "Australia" yet, but I think after witnessing the process nessisairy to create such a film, I just might dish out ten bucks and watch it on the big screen.

Test

Aloha !

testing, testing 1, 2, 3. Is this thing on ? Can anyone hear me ? Handsome Louie, turn up the mike ...
Test. Test. Ahhh, there we go !