CUCALORUS

I actually was filming all weekend, plus it was my girlfriends birthday, plus this is my senior year.... so I'm thinking about becoming a member of Cucalorus and renting all of the films I missed.  I was really upset we had to shoot this weekend, I wish we could have worked it out so that we could schedule it around the festival but it was impossible.  I managed to see some of the films before the weekend.  I caught Two Hours in the Dark by Chip, it's not a completed picture yet but he had all of the scenes.  It was nice to see how he planned out the cinematography and since Chip has experience in the camera department as well as the writing I think the product is going to be very nice.  We saw the trailer in class and I personally think it could be expanded into a feature.  

Anyway, I caught Ichthyopolis I really think I connected with my inner fish.  I really love the opera bites.  I also hear a lot of these in your film where you used the scanner.  I think this is part of your style and as a filmmaker I think this is very important.  I thought it was great.  Fish are such interesting creatures and mixing that with the human and giving each there own vibe was very amusing.  I thought the colors and images were very psychedelic and captured ones attention.  It's very hard for me to sit through most experimental films but this one was very stimulating.  I'm a narrative guy so if I can find some type of narrative structure, I'm happy.  I could really follow the fish and the owners and the fish changing the owners, I thought it was great.

I also tried to go to Jengo's on Thursday night but I got there too late.  So of course I went to the back and drank.  But it was great, Dr. Kreul had this DJ thing going where he was mixing music with controlled images hooked up to a midi player and all of the film students were hanging out.  It was one of the few times that UNCW film studies really feels like a community and I think this is one of the things this program lacks.  It think Cucalorus helps film studies a lot and I think it is a great experience for anyone who is into independent film.

Up to date....

Excuse the grammatical errors in advance.

So far 6x1 has been a blast.  I feel like we have had a lot of fun and it has been a nice class to just cool the critical studies for a while and express myself artistically.  It has also helped me learn that accidents are sometimes positive and art is objective.  I agree strongly with the idea that art should not be judged.  As long as an artist stays true to their convictions and creates something that represents what they want to portray.  I have also found liberation in confinement.  For 6x1 we are given pretty strict guidelines and sometimes we do not always follow these guidelines but I have found it you try and follow the instruction provided you will find new and creative ways to make interesting work.  For example, the 48 hour shoot is very strict with it's guidelines but without these we may not be able to look outside of the generic ways of creating film.  It's almost like the best is the best not because we think its the best or it looks the best but only because it's the norm and 6x1 forces us to look "outside the box" and try to predict was something is going to look like if we try this or that.  But, many times I am just shooting in the dark and creating something new and interesting that may give life to an entirely new project or can be Incorporated in other projects like narrative projects or documentary projects.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the 3D projects are going to look like.  It was fun to try to create something that will look better in 3D but it seems that it is very hit or miss.  It's like you have to try a bunch of cool different things and troubleshoot them and hopefully they look good when you project everything.  It was interesting seeing how a 3D image is created.  Filming the two cameras together was very difficult because all the action had to happen in a very tight framing.  After reviewing the footage I think we would have blocked the actions very differently.

As we get toward the end of the semester it seems that 6x1 has padded my reel more than any of my other production class.  We cram a lot into this class and I think that is a good thing.  I believe we all want to be filmmakers because it is something interesting and exciting.  I want to be a filmmaker because every day will be different, and this is exactly how this class is.  You can expect everything to be different, every class something new will happen.  This is what I love about 6x1.  You have an idea about how class is be but most of the time you have a completely new experience.