ITEM #6: Creative Work

This is my cinematography reel from the fall semester of 2012.  It was compiled from footage that I shot during the semester for the directing class.  This reel was turned in as part of my final requirements for the class.  I shot the first half of the footage on a Canon 60D with a 50mm Canon lens and the second half of the footage was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II with a 50mm Zeiss lens.  I edited the reel on Final Cut Pro X.  The footage is taken from Kurt Steinmuller's directing project and from Dan Wanio's directing project.

ITEM #5: Weakness

Freak: The Power of Uniqueness

I found the section focusing on our own uniqueness spoke the most to me. It is apparent that we all have strengths and weakness, those of which are very closely related. I feel that Rendall's suggestions are valid and that it is important to embrace your own quirks. To many people a certain character quirk can be off putting but maybe that is just you. So, if you stick with your quirk, then you will attract someone who will genuinely recognize you for you. This is ultimately important in my creative work, if I know and believe ultimately in a choice that I have made, then I have to trust it will be recognized by the people that I would like it to be recognized by in the first place.

Freak Factor: Putting Your Quirks to Work

This section of Rendall's article seemed very closely related to the previous section I discussed but I felt it went into more insightful details. It was valid in both of the recommendations for the individual and the manager, the individual needs to become more aware of what is not working for their quirks and the manager needs to find others that are the right freaks for them. In the creative field, especially film production, it is difficult to find the right people to work with. Everyone has their own strengths and everyone brings their weaknesses to the production. I think it is more important to work with people you know you can work with then trying to get people just based on their strengths. Most often for me I find that the people that are sometimes the right technical fit are the furthest from the right creative fit.

Personally speaking, what have you identified as a weaknesses (as far as “the creative process” is concerned)?

The creative process for myself is one that is an ocean of diversity. It is being able to swim through that ocean and find the right islands to reside on. I have found that my best work in creating films is done when I am working with people that share similar taste, not just in film but in music, food, booze, and literature. My biggest weaknesses in the creative process is getting started. I have to always consider the right timing and the right application for my project. A lot of times I start too quick and put out something that I know could be better. So ultimately for me it comes down to taking the time to develop and really flesh out an idea before rushing into it. I also cannot stand when projects do not get finished in a timely manner, so sometimes I will rush on that end to make sure it gets completed. Ultimately I would like to one day be able to make something and be confident that I did everything possible and I am satisfied with the results.

ITEM #4: Personal Essay

Life and Film

When I was around twelve years old, growing up in a small town in Ohio, the majority of my activities were derived from imagination. My friends and I would wander around the forests surrounding our neighborhood, we would walk the railroad tracks, and we would create worlds to reside in. One of my good friends had a small camera and that is all we needed to transform our play into purpose. The most vivid memory, of one of the stories we created, was a World War II movie. The movie was set in the middle of winter, a season which our playful creations were imperative in getting us through. The first shot was a series of boots running through the muddied snow. We didn't have many props and absolutely no special effects but we tried to create a story. The story was about a group of American soldiers fighting their way out of a harsh season and a fight that was brutal as well as foreign. To this day I am not sure what happened to that movie, it may be tucked away in some cardboard box in one of my friend's parent's basements, but the memory is forever with me.

Two summers ago, I finished working the salmon season in Alaska and I went back to Ohio for a vacation. I arrived with a small treatment, a storyboard, and a DSLR camera, all products of my time in the North. The same group of guys that I have known since I was eight, welcomed the idea of shooting another movie, and taking ourselves back to a world we enjoyed when we were young. After two weeks of mid-west humidity and summer thunderstorms, I left Ohio with a series of shots on my memory cards and a heavy dose of nostalgia. Once the editing on the short movie was completed, I was moved in discovering that myself and my brothers were able to construct a visual piece worth being pleased with.

The major which I am applying for in the School of Media Arts and Studies is Integrated Media. I wish to take the knowledge and experience that I have been acquiring and apply it to making independent feature length films. One of the biggest lessons that I took away from my Evolution of Media class was; there are always new inventions in the creative fields and it continues to evolve. The world of film production has gone from simple Lumiere cameras to advanced 3D rigs in just over one hundred years. Seeing the trend in technology advancing both excites and scares me. My biggest wish is to make films with the same style and tools that our forefathers made some of the biggest masterpieces in cinema with. Although the new toys and the fast paced action in large budget mainstream films is entertaining, I would like to focus my efforts on not just entertaining but on revealing more about the world around us. With the base in film production that Ohio University has given me, I long to create worlds on screens, bring dreams to the waking life, show the past as it was, and imagine the future in whatever it may become.

ITEM #3: Media Critique

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The 2007 film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, directed by Julian Schnabel, is a beautifully crafted film that reveals a world in which not many have ventured. The film was adapted from a book that was written by the main character in both the book and film. The film and book are based on the actual events of one man's life, Jean-Dominique Bauby, who was tragically “locked-in” his own own body. The film uses many artistic techniques to reveal what Bauby was thinking and feeling during his rehabilitation from an embolism that took away his ability to move all parts of his body, except his left eye. There are times when the idea of adaptations from book to film seem limited, this film has captured and perhaps even ventured into realms the book could only dream of.

Not only were the visual decisions powerful to help tell the story of Bauby on film but the choice in audio adds another layer of understanding of the story. The sounds of the hospital around Bauby are between muffled and loud due to people having to come in close to communicate with him. The first time that Bauby's kids are shown in a scene is out on the beach. It is father's day and the kids play around the beach as Bauby sits in a wheelchair wrapped up in a blanket. The scene is amplified by a song called “All the World is Green” by Tom Waits. The song talks of falling into an ocean, having a wife, and being by the sea to have a better life. The choice of the this song is very well thought for the scene. There is a part of the song where it goes on to talk about how the face forgives the mirror. The scene gives a strong sense of transition from solitude and pessimism to Bauby accepting his state. At the close of the scene he feels torn that he cannot be a regular father to his children but the following scene of his children kissing him goodbye solidifies his acceptance of his situation.  

ITEM #2: Storytelling

It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

Once upon a time, there were two people who loved each other very much.

They were both happy and found beauty in each new day.

They were both young and simple minded.

The girl began to grow sad because she had to move away.

The girl, now a woman, made her choice to leave.

The boy retreated into the depths of his own despair.

The woman moved away but left behind all the memories they once shared together.

The boy was alone.

The boy was alone but he had the sweet comfort of nostalgia.

ITEM #1: Your Voice

The second story that Flaum's childhood classmate wrote, spoke to me the most out of the two. The first story of the wolf finding its' howl was a nice existential reflection but the second story of the tiger was much more relatable to me. The main theme in the second story about the tiger was that life is cyclical. Not only are we trapped by our own minds and abilities but we are forced to face our inadequacies over and over again. Once we are freed from one “cage”, we then find ourselves in another similar cage, it is a continual Sisyphean experience.

There have been many times in my life where I change or find myself in a new circumstance. Although, throughout all of the changes and new experiences, I at my core, am still the same person. With time and growth I often tend to grow more neurotic or particular, in some cases jaded. In my late adolescence I found that rebelling and seeking out adventure was the key to my own personal happiness. For a time it was and in retrospect I envy my past self but I would never want to return to those times. After a few years of “real world” experience and holding a couple of demanding jobs I grew to take pleasure in the simple life. In my time working in Alaska I gained a reverence for people and the minimal vices that can bring people together in brutal environments.

At the core of my experiences in living and traveling, I have found that people are the same everywhere. There are always the strong and the weak, the loud and the quiet, the kindhearted and the malevolent, we are everyone. In every country I have traveled to I have seen rich cultures with vibrant people and sometimes people that are disenfranchised beyond our conceivability in the West. Through it all though, we all share human characteristics and human problems to varying degrees, all of which are coupled with our culture and circumstances.

The piece of work that speaks to me the most, and that is most consistently, is the opening monologue in the film Legends of the Fall, directed by Edward Zwick. The part of the quote that I find as a proverb for my own life is: “Some people hear their own inner voices with great cleanness. And they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy, or they become legends ...”. The idea of that quote is similar to one of my other favorite quotes that my father used to repeat throughout my child hood. The quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald is: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”. Both quotes hold the idea that we have two voices in our heads at all times, sometimes we can listen to one or the other. One voice which I see as our animal voice or our voice of passion and emotion, is the voice that brings us to a purer state of existence. The other voice is that of reason and the voice often regarded as the day to day voice. This second voice is the one we use to function as a member in a society that doesn't care for our desires and longings. Both voices are necessary to function in life but which one we chose to listen to more is the one that will determine what we are remembered as after we are long gone from this world.