May 5th

All of the films shown were quite interesting. Kuchar has a very interesting taste in themes and ideas. He seems to be very in love with the human body whether it be male or female. In Hold Me While I'm Naked, it seemed to be the main theme of the film. Nakedness was Kuchars goal for his cast. He wanted the women to be naked and they refused to do it anymore therefore leaving the film unfinished. The first thing tha ran through my head was, "I wonder if this is somewhat of an autobiographical peice." He loves the human body, but most people arent very comfortable with exposing their body to someone, especially in front of a camera, for other people to watch. I found it rather surprising as to how comfortable people were with revealing there bodys for an independent and low budget film.

Media Burn

This was an interesting piece. I really enjoyed the message that they were trying to spread. It was comedy making a statement. Those words that the fake JFK said "THE WORLD MAY NEVER UNDERSTAND WHAT WAS DONE HERE TODAY, BUT IT SHALL NOT FORGET THE IMAGE CREATED HERE." were really excellent. I noticed it was a trend in discussion that everyone thought that the new anchors were stupid fool who thought it was silly antics or that it went over their heads. I disagree with that 100%. I personally think that they knew what was trying to be said. They saw the message and they saw that they were the targets of these guys. I think they were playing dumb. I think they had to play dumb. They had no time to react to it, they had to get to the next story. They cant comment on it in a fashion that would make the news look bad. They cant say they agreed with it because its their livelihood. I dont think they were given enough credit. I think they knew exactly what was being said, you can tell this by the nervous tone in their voices.

Spiral Jetty

This movie was an interesting one. The composition was the thing that stuck out the most to me. I understand that he likes to work with resonance and that is obvious in this picture. One of the sections that stuck in my mind was the sequence when he would show a large dump truck moving tons of rock, then suddenly switch to a peaceful, serene image of the finished jetty. The thing that interested me though was that when he switched from the truck to the jetty, I could still hear the truck in the back of my mind. It lingered there for only a second and then was gone, but it still lingered. I want to think this was intentional, but it could be just a trick of the brain. But trick of the brain or not, it brought an interesting feel to the piece. It seemed as though it was a reminder that something so quiet and beautiful can come from ear-piercing noise and what seemed to be organized chaos in a sense. I think another message in this film is that sculpture doesn't have to always be sculpture in the traditional sense. Sculpture can be anything. From the tail end of an airliner to a spiraling mound on the shore of a salty lake.

Alex Bag

I definately enjoyed the video this week. I found myself laughing, but also analyzing. I was amazed at the way she could manipulate her appearence to look completely different from the previous character. The confessional section was the most impressing. She really got the speech down of each age range with the pauses and "likes" and so on. I definately felt a message in the piece, and it seemed like more than one. She seemed to be saying something to the extent of "stop whining and grow up. Stop kneeling to corporate America and tending to it's every need." Something along those lines. But it seemed thick and also extremely satirical at the same time.
I scoured Youtube for a decent video. It was very hard to come across one that was similar to Alex Bag's, but I think I was successfull.
Video.

1/28/08-Monday

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, depending on when you're reading this. I am not very familiar with blogging. In fact this will be the first time so this should be interesting.
I also am not at all familiar with experimental film, but I would like to become familiar. I found the "work" we watched today to be rather interesting. The "Buster" Keaton was of course entertaining, I have encountered him before, but the Miranda July piece was a very strange mixture of emotion. It was one of those films where the longer it goes the more your imagination runs wild. I couldnt pin down one solid emotion towards it. I felt alot of different feelings. Weird was definately one of them. I would have to say that it is the most dominant. The claustrophobic camera, the black and white security footage of a person doing very strange things almost as though she was partially labotomized, the almost programmed tone of "The Professionals" voice. These things gave it a very "planned" feel to the film. If that makes any sense.
In regards to the articles that were assigned, I really enjoyed the Bergson piece. It gave a different and easy to understand way of looking at the joke and its reason. I founf the Freud essay a little long winded, but he made some decent points.
So far the class has been interesing. I am intrigued about what is to come.