In Progress Critique

When looking at a lot of my classmate’s final project and getting feedback on my own work I learned a lot. The main thing that I was able to see was if my audience was able to get the point that I wanted to make with my video. That has always been my main goal. I want to make sure that the meaning behind my work is evident and that whoever watches it is able to connect with it somehow. Watching other people’s video I wanted to see if I could understand what they wanted to get across too. I also enjoyed hearing other people’s ideas on how they would display their work.  I wanted to do something different besides showing my video on two computer monitors but I think that is the best way for it to work.

Also getting feedback on things that I could change and things I could add into my piece was very helpful. I always want to be the best artist that I can and learn as much information as possible so any time we have critiques it is important to hear how people felt when watching my work because on a larger scale others may look at my work and feel the same way. Everyone’s ideas for their own individual pieces seem to be interesting and although we were able to see a lot of peoples work fully or close to being done I am excited to see what changes they will make and how their finished product will come out. 

Ann Arbor Film Festival Previous Winners

Although I wasn’t able to make it to the Ann Arbor Film Festival this year I was able to find some of the previous winners work. It was hard to really find any of the previous artist full work but I found excerpts and trailers of some of them. I am not sure if the work I found was the correct pieces but if they were I found a lot of nice pieces. A few that stuck out to me was one by Huang Weikai. His piece called Disorder was the winner of Michael Moore Award Best Documentary Film. I personally liked this piece because one day I want to make a documentary of my own. These types of work are great because they show real life events. In Disorder it seems like it took place in another country and although it was a trailer, to see a little of what goes on in other countries and how they differ from America is great. We as Americans that haven’t had the opportunity to travel can see a documentary like this and get a better understanding of the struggles that people in other countries have. To win an award by Michael Moore is a big deal because he is one of the most popular documentary artists around so that says even more about the piece Disorder.

Another piece that I really liked was In a Pig’s Eye by Atsushi Wada. This piece won the Prix DeVarti Funniest Film award. I was only able to find excerpts on this piece too but the little that I was able to watch was funny and interesting as well. In a lot of my video art I like to bring humor into the equation. Sometimes it is on purpose and other times it is something that comes naturally. Laughter is the key to living in my mind so to be able to make my audience laugh is something I really enjoy doing. Through all the work that I was able to view I found them pretty cool and it would have been great to see what this years festival had. I was inspired by the work I viewed to learn more and one day be able to make much more interesting pieces.

Gerry Fialka

Gerry had a lot of points that made you think. Usually when talking to most artists or when artist come to lecture I expect them to come and talk about their art work but he immediately got the audience to thinking with the first question that he asked. The fact that he was able to keep us all involved besides the one guy that he caught sleeping. Gerry had an interesting idea about art too. He talked about how artists have come up with art work that is not art work but then he covered other mediums that have done the same thing. Like the women that mad the book that wasn’t a book or the man that made the song that wasn’t a song. To me this is the most interesting because I feel like music, just like art, is something that is everywhere. So many artists have taken things that have already been made and then calling them art after making a slight change to them. When the music artist recorded the song that was nothing but natural sound and called it music it was just the same as artists that make found art. I dislike both of these because I like creativity and people who are original. I feel that taking found art or making music out of basically nothing is an insult us who work hard to make real art and music with meaning.

Some of the simple quotes that Gerry said were interesting too. It was one about taking the time to make planes and then doing the opposite. I liked that one because sometimes we constantly make plans that don’t work out the way that they should so maybe if we tried the opposite or just tried something different in general we would get different and possibly better results. Another thing he asked us was would it ever really be silence. Another one of those questions that I think made everyone think. And I think the biggest thing about a lot of his questions were they didn’t make us just think on the surface of things but I heard other people talking and they seemed to be in deep thought about these questions. All together his lecture was something that made me think and that was the most important part to me and it is what really kept me tuned in.

A little about me.

I was born in Detroit and lived there for a little while then later moved to Southfield. I have a strong love for music. I write, sing and rap. Music has always been a part of my life even way before art. Being able to express myself through music is something that I wouldn’t trade for the world. I am a very oriented person. I love to be around my family because those are some of the few people who I can truly be myself around. Art is something that I like a lot to because it has such a large open range of creativity. I like making art with meaning. My tattoos that I have mostly designed myself all have significant meaning to me. I am a very open minded person. Trying and experiencing new things that will help my creativity in my music and in my art is always something I enjoy doing. 

60 Second Shot

With the 60 second shot I learned some of the different angles that I could use. This was interesting to me because while watching other peoples pieces I saw how the change of the cameras angle could make the video completely different then if it was just shot at a normal straight on angle. Also with this piece I learned more about having a narrative. Videos should have a meaning to them. Even with a video as short as 60 seconds most piece have details behind them that gave at least some kind of beginning or middle or end point. This is usually up to the person who makes the video but it will allow the viewer to get more of what is actually going on. I also liked the fact that we had to use the natural sound and was not able to edit sound into the piece. This worked well in a lot of the videos because the sound is what helped give the narrative. Sometimes even having absolute silence in the video worked well too. Some of the different shots were close ups or wide screamed shoots, there were still shots and also panning shots. All these are interesting in there own way because where as a close shot make the viewer focus on specific things a wide shot gives the viewer the option of what to look at. Also still shots and panning shots have about the same effect. This practice of the 60 second shot gave me practice but also ideas of what all options I have when making any video.  

What I Love About Video Art

Video art is a great thing because of the way you are able to tell a story. With most art you have a single object that makes it more difficult to put meaning into it. With video art you can have as much meaning whether it is the words that are used or the actions or even the way that it’s edited etc. Video art gives you more room to be creative. My favorite part about video art is the editing. Editing to me is so fun and creative. When I first was able to work with editing software I played with it forever just getting myself familiar with all the things that it was able to do. Slowing things down or putting other visual effects on my work was something that I really enjoyed doing. Editing isn’t just about those things though, because even the simple changes and effects are exciting as well. One of my first projects in Video Art 1 I did a lot of different camera changes and since I was only using one camera I wanted the scenes to flow together and look as if I was using multiple cameras. Being able to put different clips together and with the right timing and the right transition was simple and made the video flow smoothly as well. I truly want to learn more and get more familiar with different software and techniques that make my videos look more professional so that one day I am able to use them to my benefit in making a great career for myself.