Motions Melded...

Though the performance was definitely a fun experience, I must say that I am a bit relieved that it is over - and quite impressed that we pulled it off.
I was almost expecting something to go terribly wrong during the concert and not be able to connect with the other two locations.

I think that all of the transitions and scenes themselves went pretty smoothly. All in all, I think it was a good experience.

Stuff's Happening...

I finished my sound score over the weekend and (I think) I'm pretty much finished with the video component as well. I still need to do some more space-diagraming with my two lovely movement volunteers, but that isn't too complicated.

I really like what I have done so far. It's pretty intense. Some parts are a bit overwhelming, but I want it to be that way.

I guess I'll see on Friday during tech how it all looks together in the space.

Taking Shape...

SO much work being done.
Currently in the works, I have a video, a sound score, and a choreographic structure.

For the live movement component, I just need bodies on stage. I hope people will actually volunteer to help.

The video is a bit of a mix between images and footage. I'm including stop motion, memorial pictures, arial footage, and pictures.

The sound score is a mix that I compiled of songs and quotes. Bush, Reporters, found sound, etc. I think it's going to be really cool.

"Zero" to Text in 60 Seconds...

I have to say, I was very impressed with our demo on the ipad garageband last week. I insisted that my dad get it for his ipad so I could play around with it.

Onto more important topics. I've been doing a lot of observing out my window. Now, for most of the population, this would simply be "people watching." Nope, not in my case. I'm ground zero watching.
Actually, more often than not, it's ground zero hearing. I'm constantly being woken up by construction sounds - banging, drilling, digging, yelling. It's annoying to say the least - especially at 3am.

I would LOVE to use this as inspiration for a piece.
I want to use some of the footage/ pictures of this site that I have gathered so far and maybe pair it with a poem/piece of original text. It's so weird how, whenever anyone mentions ground zero, I just think of not being able to sleep through the night. Other people probably have trouble sleeping through the night at the mention of 9/11...but for very different reasons.

I mentioned this in a previous post, but my current apartment overlooks the site of ground zero. 24 hours a day, there is construction going on. Cranes still digging up dirt, cement trucks constantly churning and paving. Yet, 10 years later, it still appears to be a huge hole in the ground. From the street level, you can't see anything. There are walls enclosing the space - leaving most people who walk by confused and curious. Quite frankly, I am a little more annoyed than most people would be because the construction keeps me awake throughout the night.
Regardless, I have a plan that relates to our performance.

I want to set up a camera on my window sill, and just record some of the construction that is going on there. Just observing. Most people don't get to see this action - only the memorial itself and the monuments. I think it would be really cool to have movement, music, or images of the memorial juxtaposed with this footage.

Unescapable Memories

I was in 7^th grade. It was a typical Tuesday morning. Our days, in an Orthodox Jewish School, began with morning prayers. At the end of the period, a teacher stood up in front of the room – boys sitting on the right, girls on the left, separated by 4 long dividers. He told us that both of the Twin Towers had been hit. I, a very sheltered soul, did not know what was going on. My mind had trouble comprehending the severity of a terrorist attack. We filed into the library to watch the news coverage. Students in the lower grades were not told of the event – only the 6^th-8^th graders. I felt empty, though still confused as to what the commotion was about.

I remember standing outside of the lockers on the 2^nd floor during our break between classes. Only then did I remember that my dad worked in New York City. I panicked for a brief moment. I figured that I would have heard if something bad had happened to him. I had not remembered it at the time, but he had actually worked in one of the towers a few years early.

We had been getting phone calls all day of family friends with whom we had lost touch, wondering if my dad still worked downtown.

The rest of the school day was a blur. We may have had an assembly to discuss the events. If we did, I was not focused.

I did not really understand how serious the situation was until I got in the car after school. In the midst of trying to explain to my 9 year old brother what was going on, she mentioned that my dance classes for the evening had been canceled. That’s when I realized that this was something really, really bad.

At home, we spent the rest of the evening glued to the tv. The same footage was played on every news station over and over again. No new information – but still, the urge to watch.

Apparently, I had said something to the effect of, “Now I know what Israelis feel like every day.” I was finally starting to identify with the events.

For a while I was scared. The news stories did not change much, but they still made me nervous.  I think the biggest adjustments that I made were in the airports. That was a clear sign that America had been hit hard.

A couple months after 9/11, I went apple picking with my family and some friends. We were walking through the orchard when we heard the distant rumble of a plane. Everyone stopped. We searched the sky. All air activity had been suspended. This was the first plane any of us had seen for weeks. We wondered how long it would be until that sound was normal again.

Every day I feel like I see the after effects of 9/11.  My bedroom window overlooks the memorial, ground zero, and the fire department that lost so many of its fighters. It was easier to “avoid” the after-effects when I was living in Massachusetts, or even Connecticut because I was distanced – both physically and mentally. Now, it confronts me, and I am forced to confront it. 

Fast Forward

So much happening lately. Working/Seeing last week's performance was definitely interesting. It was really cool to see the different artists working towards one central goal. I have always enjoyed working in theaters. It's not necessarily something that I would do as a career, but it's something that has been interesting to be a part of.

I can't believe we're thinking about the December 9-10th performance already. There are so many talented people in the class, I think we could do something really cool. I think it would be great to do a music/film/music collaboration.

Organized Chaos

I hope tonight is going to be a little more "organized" than "chaotic." 

Deep Breathes...

Wow. So much going on.
I feel like everything has shifted drastically in the past few days.
My friend in Massachusetts, who I was collaborating with, got a concussion last week and is not able to do any strenuous physical activity (including dancing via skype). So, panicked, I contacted two other friends - one in Cambridge, England and one also in Massachusetts. I plan on doing the performance with the one in England, with my friend in MA on standby - ya know, just in case something goes wrong.

Organizing has definitely been stressful, but not too terrible. I had some fun making the program.
Hopefully everything goes smoothly tomorrow.

Crunch Time

I have to admit, I have been so preoccupied with actually figuring out the details of my project, fine-tuning the video, and organizing the event, I have forgotten to actual document my progress via blog. 

Where to begin? 

Well, the editing process was a bit slow at first because I was having some trouble coming up with new ideas. Everything that crossed my mind seemed boring and recycled. So, I made some changes. Instead of solely using footage of movement sequences, I decided to add into the video creepy, erie footage that I took  at an old storage section of the beach. It's pretty great. It adds a nice contrast to the movement distortion.

I've also been having fun being an organizer for the event. I hate to sound like a nerd, but I really like this kind of thing. 

Getting Down to Business

Figuring out what I wanted to do was the easy part. What will really make it happen is the connections and technology aspects.

List of what I need
1 Computer (on my end)... MA friends will have a computer of their own.
2 projectors - 1 showing MA movement and 1 projecting pre-recorded video
DVD player - playing DVD of pre-recorded video

I don't really want music and sound to interfere too much with the movement experiment, which is why I won't need extra audio connections. I would not want too much of the noise from the MA video to dominate the action. The DVD will be silent as well.

Connections...
DVD player will connect to the projector via RCA cable.
Computer (skype/ichat) will connect to the 2nd projector via VGA cable

hopefully it all works!!!

IDEAS!!

I've been thinking - A LOT - about my collaborative project for the 25th.

My original plan was to do something relating dance/movement with altered video. Aka, video that has been discolored, distorted, out of synch. I'm not sure so much anymore about all of that - maybe some of it.
I really want to record myself doing a phrase, and then slow/speed the timing and maybe change the coloring.
In the live performance, I would be doing the same movement.
Meanwhile, friends of mine from Massachusetts will be on skype/ichat only interacting with my live movement.
It's a connection - I'm feeding off of the distorted images, and they are feeding off of me. It's like that game "telephone" - the material is derived from the same source but, somewhere along the line, the images change.

I'm feeling pretty good about this final decision.

A Picture's worth a thousand words...

Information Overload

Though I think this is a given when collaborating and working with multimedia, this is what I learned in today's class: technology is complicated.
It took us over an hour to get everything set up, and we couldn't even fully achieve a proper connection with the audio. Which goes to show that some things are completely out of our hands.
You would think that there would be a less complicated way to make connections, but I guess not.
The entire class I was scribbling down terms in my notebook, attempting to remember which cables got plugged into where and why.
For the longest time we couldn't get our video to work. It turns out that the problem was that one of our cables wasn't plugged in all the way. Of course. We do everything correctly and something so minor caused us to have a malfunction.
This whole learning process is making me think about how I could possibly manage to make these connections by myself for my own work.
Overwhelming, to say the least.

Off Screen Intentions

Why exactly is film so intriguing? It is merely because it allows us to see into different worlds? Or even because it has the ability to show us something about our own worlds?
I've been experimenting with film for a few years now and I am still trying to figure out why I am doing what I am doing.
My "thing" is dance that incorporates film. But how exactly is that different than just "dance?" I know why. Well, I could explain the definitions of both and then explain, literally, why and how they are different.
But more abstractly, how are the worlds different? What am I trying to accomplish by using both? When working on a specific project or choreographic work, I could easily explain based on my piece intentions. But I am asking in the broadest idea of multi-media art - not on a specific level.

It's still something that I am working on.

World's Apart

I've been doing some thinking about what I want to explore in my October 25th project. It's a little bit difficult when the task is to communicate and collaborate with a person you are standing right next to - much less someone who is a skype chat's distance away.

With so many modes of communication these days, how do we effectively convey meaning?

Still Learning

After class yesterday (and during class as well) I was thinking about how much could be done with sound. I have some experience with sound, but not very much. I have run sound boards for dance performances, but the mixers are relatively simple compared to the larger ones that we are using for our collaboration projects. I always thought that I was pretty good at technology but it seems like I still have a lot to learn.

Specs of Dust in the Internet

I was reflecting on our class this past week and how what we were doing relates to the use of screens and projections on a larger scale. What we are doing is, essentially, framing, and projecting, art. Our videos have a distinct intention and purpose - planned months in advance.

On Tuesday, we used iChat to connect two computers and send messages to each other. Everyday, people worldwide use similar programs (Skype, Facebook, etc) to send live video messages of themselves. Their intent in not necessary art but it does have a distinct purpose. A simple skype chat with a friend probably is not planned months in advance, but it still conveys an important message between two people.

And furthermore, think about youtube. Just think about how many people upload themselves doing crazy - or even not so crazy - things for the world to see. And I'm sure many of those videos are planned months in advanced.

I was thinking about how easy it is to frame yourself, and send your message - whatever that message may be. What we are doing - though inventive and interesting - will merely be one of thousands (maybe millions) of videos online trying to convey a specific message.

Thinking about the global scale of online media really puts our semester-long collaboration into perspective.

Back to Basics

My dad likes to say that old movies are so much better than all of the "crap" that's ok tv today. More often than not, the tv in our living room is turned onto AMC or Turner Classic Movies. Most of the movies that play on these channels, I have never heard of before and I probably will never see again - unless they happen to come on tv when I am around the house. Though they are not as "visually stimulating" as today's shows and movies are, my dad does have a good point. The quality of the production is definitely far below today's standards, but old movies seem to have a certain authenticity and integrity than most of what I watch today. It isn't necessarily the content that is different, or even the acting. They just have a quality that gives them a certain feel. I have no idea what this "quality" is, and I'm not even sure if I could pin-point it if it was right in front of me. Maybe it was something about the era that they were made in. I'm curious about whether it would be possible to imitate qualities from old movies to produce something with more integrity today.

Experiencing the Present

The other night, I was sitting at home watching a re-run of Saturday Night Live. Live TV is always fascinating to watch because there are so many different types of performance occurring simultaneously. The actors/ musical guests/ performers are performing to a live audience as well as a nationwide audience.

There are significantly fewer camera angles used and cuts within sketches - most likely because too many cameramen would be distracting and the performers would not always know where to perform to. Because the comedy and satire is based on current events and popular culture, the performers are aware that their jokes are being performed to a specific and "aware" audience - unlike sitcoms that do not acknowledge the audience members. It made me wonder what it would be like to be a live audience member of the show. There are so many costume changes and internal set changes that the tv-watching audience does not see. The action is framed differently for a studio-viewer than for a television viewer. Even though the content that both audiences are the same, each viewer gets a different perspective of the action.  In some ways it would be like watching a live broadcast of a play. There is a different energy in the live space that is neither visible nor palpable when the action is viewed through a screen. 

Retrograding Screens

Remember – back when having a home TV was a completely new concept – when screens were much smaller and people had to fuss around with the antennas to get decent reception? Of course, I don’t remember that time because I wasn’t alive yet. But I’ve seen my fair share of old movies and sitcoms depicting these outdated customs. A family of 5 all huddled around a miniscule black and white television yet, constantly shushing each other in attempts to hear what is going on, because there was no such thing as “re-runs” or DVR.

Though technology has come a long way since then, I can’t help but thinking that we have come full circle – in some ways, back to the time of the “old tv.”

Just think about the way that many people watch movies and television these days – on their computers or PDA devices. Though this is a very different technology than the original tv sets, I sometimes feel like I’m watching something from 50 years ago. I can’t tell you how many times my tv/movie watching experience has been interrupted by poor internet connections – sometimes causing my computer to freeze and requiring me to restart the program. And the screen that I’m watching on is so much smaller than the tv in my living room.

Yes, planning your schedule around televisions shows is a nuisance, and the HD quality of today’s PDA screens are great when they work, but I still think it’s a little funny how we are, yet again, huddling around small screens instead of larger ones.   

Attention: Captured

Tonight I decided to do something that I do not do very often, and that was sit in front of the television and just watch, regardless of what station or program was on. Instead of focusing on the content of the show, commercials, etc, I tried to pay attention to how the camera work conveyed meaning.

            In one of the shows that I was watching, two parties were taking place – a birthday party for a middle-aged woman, and a high school house party. Every couple minutes, the camera would cut between each of the parties – both furthering and showing contrast in both of the story lines. What I found interesting was that very similar camera techniques were used for both scenes. Jump cuts and shaky camerawork reinforced the chaos within the scenes.

One of the stations that I tuned into was NBC. During one of the commercial breaks, an ad for the Nissan Versa came on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy28I03ml4o

I immediately noticed how the quick cuts and layered frames were used to show versatility and provide the viewer within a dynamic impression of the car. It makes perfect sense that almost every shot was of legs in a car because the commercial was advertising more leg-room. But how often do we, as viewers, take the time to think about how something is shown to us instead of, merely, what is shown. We see the assortment of colors strung together with stop-motion animation. Paired with a catchy song, these are the perfect ingredients for capturing an audiences’ attention. 

Clearly, as made evident by this blog post, it worked.