User:Toddo51578
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Name: Todd Fiore
E-mail: Toddo51579@aol.com
Website: ???
Major: Film
Final Paper
Todd Daniel Fiore Intro to Digital Sound Jon Phillips 12/5/05
Intertitle
Cinema at its core is a communication medium. It conveys topics, lessons, tools, and socially appropriate material for the masses at large. Cinema is no different then a book, a piece of music, or a speech meant to inform and influence us. Often in today’s world this idea of cinema is gone. Now we see film solely as an entertaining visual diversion from reality. It is divorced from the place that made it. Some aspects remain, however; that of the narrative, the visual, and cinemas temporality. With the video Intertitle, I attempted to bring all these aspects, as well as cinemas historical meaning, into dialogue with each other. Intertitle at the core is a remix of a narrative film classic by F.W. Murnau. Nosferatu was made in Germany in the early 1920’s. The film in its day was a box office success. It did, however, bring back to the forefront the debate over whether or not intertitles should be utilized in moving pictures. Nosferatu was at the core of this debate for sometime, as was F.W. Murnau for his copious amount of intertitles. My video re-interprets the original material in regards to its temporality and visual. Although intertitles no longer incite endless debate, the aspects of a films length and sound do. By speeding it up, layering the image, and re-photographing the entire piece I attained a visual that is dynamic and engaging. Duration became an aspect that I structured the film around. Taking a film that is originally two hours long and compressing it down to five minutes really does play with the narrative and visual aspects of the original. My video acts and an abridged version of the original cramming actions, tone and sound all on top of each other. The Color tinting in the video also plays a role in the re-processing. The sound was an exploration of very high and low frequencies that is reminiscent of the original film, but also open the experience to a more audible interpretation The sound appears and then recede in the same fashion that the images themselves appear and disappear before the viewer can take them in. The video pays homage to F.W. Murnau’s genius and also takes it into a new direction. Duration, when applied to cinema, is being heavily explored by a great amount of contemporary artists. Douglas Gordan’s work deals very much with the gesture becoming so much more when the films are slowed down in an epic fashion. Simultaneity plays an important part in this edit very similar to the recent work of Les Leveck. If I had a chance to redo the project, or re-edit it even further, I would be intriguing to remix the remix, or re-edit the re-edit. The image would go into pure abstraction and the sound would also take on a new role. One problem I did notice in the screening was the fact that my sound had been mixed very low. This was an intention mixing on my part. I almost wanted the sound to have a ghost like presence. It would proceeded and recede at will, engaging with the viewer in an awkward, if not antagonizing fashion. In the space however, with the limited-working speakers the sound came off very low, and I had to crank the levels very high even to get any sound at all. Programming was also a hard thing. As I made the DVD it was interesting to program the videos. Some were light, some were dark; Some were engaging, others intimidating. Placing a work next to another work in a film/video program, to me at least, is akin to setting up very large photos next to each other. One is either engaged and goes along with the program, or they are put off and shut down. Currating not only my own work, but others was a challenge for the show because of the different tone and character of each work. The most interesting part of the evening is when my piece was shown without my original sound and was remixed by the sound performers in the space. When someone was playing a “sound construction” people if they looked up at the visuals had no way of knowing if the sound was married to the image or not. This intrigued me. The space that night seemed very filled with sound, in a good way. The space was filled with sound and image all around and people stayed to look. Some pieces were more successful than other and maybe the gallery was not the perfect venue for some formats, but all and all, I think that the night was a success. On that night the gallery was transformed from the night before by the Sounds clashing, images mixing and people mingling into something else entirely; a remixed space.
site with work up
http://www.jasonmarriescarrie.com/
podcast
http://feeds.feedburner.com/FutureMedia
streaming media
meida file for broadcast
http://www.archive.org/details/TaylorBaughnFreedomisntFree
3 questions
- 1. Are scientific chaos improvised music and the surprised of a live human improvised jazz maker really the same thing? One has the human element and in the other it is absent?
- 2. Although the sound of surprise is interesting with improvised music, the listener not only thinks about the past but at times guesses the future, where is that to be accounted for?
- 3. There is more to music than discrete time and continuos time, and analysis, there is truly an emotional impact, perhaps that is the most important, but is missing from the analysis.
Personal Final show project
- Intertitle
This video is a type of Hollywood Narrative Remix. It is a small segment of a much larger body of work dealing with re-examining classic narrative films. For this section I will take FW Murnau Nosferatu and re-edit it. By speeding it up, layering the image, and re-photographing the entire piece I hope to attain a visual that is dynamic and engaging. Duration will be an aspect that I will structure the film around, approx 5 or 6 minutes. Color tinting the video will also plat a role in the re-processing. The sound will be an exploration of very high and low frequencies that is reminiscent of the original film, but also open the experience to a more audible interpretation The sound will appear and then recede in the same fashion that the images themselves appear and disappear before the viewer can take them in. This film also has an large amount of Intertitles, hence the title of the piece, that will play a significant role in the re-photography.
Final Show Proposal
- Title/Concept: Car Wash.
- Personal Project/Contribution: I think that we should turn the whole RX gallery into a car wash. Or at least use the idea of car radios and portable radios. Key to the presintations would be the idea of very low res sound, on very small speakers, radios, portable tuners. We could create sounds that would be best fit for the cropped medium, and utilize the space to show them. We all could be workers at this space and the viewer would travel through the space, being bombarded by sound. I guess it would be more of a human sound wash, then a car wash.
- Group Work: We all could make pieces that reflect this theme of dergraded sound, and car wash. We could have images, and sound together, as well as sculpture.
- What Equipment needed?: Really cheap speakers, and lots of portable radios, and old boom boxes. Setting them up in a row as the viewer walks through
- Installation Time?: Put up and take up time can be very minimal, and we can all be involved in setting up the sound, video projections, sculpture and helping others prepare for their installations.
Submissions
2006 iMAGE festival
I submitted two pieces to this film festival. My film called "olympia 776" and "because..." There was no submission fee and students were able to submit two works on a dvd for previewing>
Black Maria Film & Video Festivsal
One of the oldest film/video festivals in NJ. I submitted my video "because..."
Fabulous Moving Images
I am currently in a show called “Fabulous Moving Images” curated by Charles Boone, a local faculty member. He curated this show to travel with him to Milwaukee next week on October 25, I believe. He is previewing the show at the San Francisco Art Institute on October 17, 2005 at 5:00pm in the lecture hall. That is when this class is going on, so it will be hard for students to go see it.
Blur and Sharpen
Blur and Sharpen in an ongoing screening at the Institute for Multimedia Literacy at the University of Southern California. The first screening deadline was October 15, 2005. The screening will start in November and will continue on for the remainder of this year. The “Blur and Sharpen” screenings focus on film and video animation that re-examines political, scientific and historical issues. They were primarily interested in reprocessed imagery that somehow sheds new light on the subject matter. More information can be found at http://videos.antville.org/stories/1224255/
Projects
Final Project Proposal
Proposal for Final Project
For my final sound project i will be working on making a sound construction for two pieces that i plan on completing for the end of the semester. The sound in these pieces will not be subservient to the image and in one case, i would almost prefer the sound to be even more dominant than the moving image itself.
Research
Project 1
Working Title: "A Short History of Narrative Cinema" Format: Digital Video Length: unknown
This video will be a compilation of several smaller videos/films that i have made and will continue to make. These small "segments" are made from taking a classic (in the sense that the film is a classic to me, that being the only standard) and reorganizing it is a new fashion.
The reorganization occurs in many different ways, but most often it revolves around cutting down the film dramatically and then layering the imagery to make what was representational, is now abstract. The tension between the abstract and the representational is key to these pieces, i play with that aspect of the imagery and often attempt to play with that aspect of the sound.
The sound from these pieces comes from the original soundtrack and is also reprocessed. I often want to move away from the image in constructing the sound, so they don't become locked into the same pattern. The sound on some of these pieces will be provided as a counterpoint (aka, a solid segment of sound that is not layered or distorted), or might be reprocessed in a unique but engaging fashion.
I have already completed image and sound for 1/3 of these "redux" edits of film classics, and i am currently working on "Suddenly last summer" and "Nosferatu". There will be more of these re-edits to come and each one will be treated individually and therefore have a unique approach taken to it. Hopefully there will be enough commonality in the final edit that the whole piece will hang together.
Project 2
Working Title: "Digital 8" or "Pan/Tilt" Format: 16mm B/W film Length: approx. 5
This film i have yet to shot. The Film will be shot in regular 8mm film and then optically print the film to play around with the expectations that goes along with that medium. Some points to note: Regular 8mm film is the size as 16mm film. Regular 8mm film is shot on 50ft spools and when that 50ft have been shot, you flip the reel and then film the other 50ft. Usually the lab cuts the film in the middle and splices them end to end. But i will not cut it. I will keep it on 16mm film with will have 4 squares of regular 8mm on each 16mm frame. I will then reprint the film to play with the 4 squares and focus on Pan and Tilting in their purest form.
The images for this film have yet to be shot, and i have gone around town and made some sound recordings, but i have yet to lock down the sound construction for this film. I have been recording with a stereo mic, and i think that the sound will be playing with the Right/Left Channel divide. The field recording i have nor range from people walking to buses driving by. I really have yet to decide what the tone or character of the sound would be.
The sound will be constructed in protools. or some other sound program and i will eventually get an optical sound negative and marry the sound to the final 16mm print.
Sound Project 1
Working Title: Suddenly Format: Digital Video Length: 10:00min
The video "Suddenly" reexamines the 1959 film "Suddenly, Last Summer" by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
The plot of the film deals with a secret that Elizabeth Taylor's character witnessed last summer that has caused here to go insane. Her cousin Sebastian Venable was killed while on vacation in a very gruesome fashion. This taboo secret in the narrative remain key to climax scene in the film, which lasts for approx 10:00 minutes.
I thought i would restructure the film by layering it visually and invoke the insanity of the Catherine Holly Character. The images go from dark to light, while the sound goes from audible to inaudible. The Sound and image work as a collage that each viewer can watch and come away with a different story. It is remarkable how much of the Hollywood narrative still comes across even though the film is so largely jumbled and layered.
I have a particular problem with this pieces fade to blacks. I am still indecisive on how i feel about the fades and the black frames. I thought it would pose as an important counterpoint, but now that i watch it over and over, i feel that that might not be as successful as i initially thought.
Final Project Outline
For Final Project: A short History of Narrative Cinema
Capture/Arrange
- week 4
- week 5
- week 6
Edit/Render
- week 7
- week 8
- week 9
Sound/troubleshoot
- week 10
- week 11
- week 12
- week 13
Compress/exhibition format
- week 14
- week 15
Personal FAQ
What experience do you have with sound software and what kind?
working with protools, FCP, and sound edit 16.
What experience do you have with programming and what kind?
Not very much.
What do you know and how interested are you in Free Culture, Open Source, and Programming?
I am intrested in the Prelinger archive, and other creative commons sort of stuff.
What kind of experience with building speakers and external sound hardware do you have?
Not enough.
What type of installations / performances have you done?
Done several film loops, and a video installation once.
Which aspects of audio interest you? (recording / performance / sound installations...)
recording to master to a film or video
Do you play an instrument and what is the instrument(s)?
None
What do you want to get out of this class?
Some sort of knowledge
Do you take another sound class this semester and what is its name?
No
What kind of music are you into? Art, pop, whatever...
German cabaret Music from the 1920's
What field trips would you like? (studio)
Hmmm, i dont know.
What is your secret weapon?
Jesus
