Saturday, November 6, 2010

Second Film Project!

Voila - the second project of my Film Studies Class!

I am very proud of this short video. I had 1 day to film (plus another 15 minutes when my prof gave us an extra day to finish our films), and 3 days to pull it together (plus another extra day to fiddle due to unexpected extension). This short video is the culmination of my abstract vision, an amazing day of interviewing my friend Charlotte, extreme sleep depravation, and an iron clad determination to create something beautiful, touching, moving, and deeply tender.

I think that I succeeded on all accounts. Now I must recover from getting sick, and switch creative gears once again for the 3rd and final project. A group documentary about "community". It will be interesting to see how this comes together.

Below is a link to my second project - an interview with a classmate:

"Thoughtful Questions With Charlotte"

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Film Studies Project #1

It is now November, 2010. I am in a new block at Quest University. Last block was neuroscience - which blew my mind (in the best way possible)! This block is Film: theory and practice. Which means we read philosophical/academic articles, debate them, decode them, and generally try to understand what they are saying exactly. The other aspect is directing, and editing film projects based on prompts given to us by our teacher Fei. This part is right up my alley. I love creating stories, telling stories - and doing it in a creative way. I gained a tremendous amount of practical experience this summer creating movies for the "Life at Quest" website. It has been fun putting my new found skills into action - further developing them along the way.
I am thoroughly enjoying myself, even thought I could do without some of the philosophical film debates. But there are worse things in life. Also the avant guard french films aren't really "my thing". Why is it so hard to read the subtitles! It makes taking in the visual aesthetics an extra challenge. But again, there are worse things in life. Perhaps they will grow on me :)

Here is the comment I received from my Film Professor about my movie, "60 Seconds of J'aime":

Joyful, affective, and spirited. All the true wonderful qualities of being an artist. In her artwork, the young filmmaker Jaime explores so many different precious aspects of one’s life: friend, family, hobby, personality…. How many chances does a viewer have in a lifetime to be invited to a sincere space of girl’s room? It is “A Room of One’s Own”, as Virginia Woolf eloquently puts it. It is a room of heart and soul, and most importantly sincere expressions of artistry. In this collection of film works, Jaime is also the only film artist who pays detailed attention to production design, especially in her smart usage of wardrobe. The viewers are obliged and privileged to this invitation to this precious space of art and life. Now the biggest challenge for this young artist is to explore more in-depth the complicated self. What constitutes us internally as opposed to what we have around us? What are the different layers of the self? The true challenges are both the technical variety and depth as well as emotional variety and depth.

Below is a link to the first project. "60 seconds of yourself." Which is actually harder than it sounds! How do you convey all that you are in 6o seconds!?!


Well I hope you Enjoy it.

Ps - second project coming soon! I am very proud of this one!