ANIMATION ASSIGNMENT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY-pu5Vhvyk&feature=youtu.be

Hyper Haiku

http://fmundergrad.hunter.cuny.edu/~martineza/Line_ONE.html

Production notes

To be honest I unfortunately have to admit that I did not learn anything. This however is not the fault of any of the faculty, but a mere result of the fact that I have been doing this sort of work for 3 years already. Though of course, like most things there were some minor aspects which presented new challenges. I have done interviews before, but they were always thoroughly scripted. In class however it was a lot more free form. This being the case it was fun for me to try and cut, and re-piece audio in such a way as to form a narrative, rather than simply arraigning the parts of a preconceived narrative.  Overall I am pleased with the work I have done and think it accomplishes my major aim: to tell a short story in an entertaining manner. Though I do agree upon further examination that perhaps a 2nd pause would have been helpful since its is generally broken up into 3 topics. If I were to pick out anything in particular that I found useful or enjoyable in the making of this project I would have to say that the sharpening of my skills in using image to convey an idea or concept was my most favorable aspect of the project. I tried to apply what I have seen in other films in order to create an effect of an integration of sound and image. Given another chance I would do it differently, chiefly I would simply do it better, a lot of which was related to the lack of time due to my dense schedule. 

Tracee interview final cut

Tracee interview

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lG1R-s_pnVc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Story Boards Rock!

not really but here's what I've got. there in order top to bottom and represent roughly a min per page.

Blog #2 image sound, image image relationships

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxQcBKUPm8o

the above link will lead the reader of this post to one of Tim Burton's early works in film, specifically claymation.

       The following piece is a prime example of the importance between sound and the image in order top evoke, marry, and narrate a story. On the surface and most obvious level we have literal narration voiced over by Vincent Price himself as he tells the tale of a young boy named Vincent Malloy who imagines himself being a tortured soul of various fantasy scenarios. Here sound in the form of voice is necessary to bring context and add to the content on the screen. For example in the final bit when Vincent is lying on the floor, without the narration this part would lose some of the power that Vincent's voice quoting Edgar Allen Poe brings to the final sequence. However even without the narration, the very soundtrack itself married to the visuals would be sufficient to at least convey the idea that there is a major disparity between the home life experiences of the young boy and his adolescent fantasy world. The pitch of the organ breaking up the silence of the young boys room helps the imagery impress even more so upon us the impression that we have left reality and entered the mind of a demented young boy.
         However strip the video of even the soundtrack and still, through imagery and the interplay between cuts and visuals, the film is able to convey this disparity. For instance we know vincent is a young boy because it is established visually within the first few seconds as we see him dressed in normal clothes in a normal house, with a bored expression on his face. But as we cut to various fantasy sequences the walls sometimes bend or melt, the boy don's a mustache and goatee, and the lighting transforms into extreme chiaroscuro. These visual cues help to convey to the audience a sense that the boy in the film is living a normal life which to him is so dreadful that he spends his time fantasizing in order to escape the mundane. In conclusion I felt this short piece was very appropriate and demonstrated the ability of sound and image, via their correlation and culmination, to bring abstract ideas onto the screen in a way that the brain can effectively understand and enjoy intuitively.

"What I heard"

I did my sound walk on a saturday and decided to go downtown towards the village. As one might expect the sound of the trains on the way their were loud and prominent, but when I began to really search for sound I could notice people shuffling one way or the other because of their shoes. One traveler I could even tell was listening to michael jackson as I listened carefully and heard the faint music escape his earbuds as he stood across from me. Upon leaving the station as the thundering train left me, the low echoes of the clacking of everyones shoes, the low rumble of the air from vents, and eventually as everyone cleared the area the hum of the lights within the station could be heard. After getting above ground the soundscape became more complex, taxies were driving by and a random honk of a horn, the gust of wind as it blew the liter from the ground, and the far off chatterings of pedestrians created the background noise of the city. As I made my way away from the cube towards copper union I could hear music which after little effort searching realized was coming from some hippy squatter looking type with his guitar, what I found interesting about this however was not the quality of the sound itself but rather the fact that my focus on this sound immediately caused me to be unaware that their was a beggar nearby asking for change. Although he wasn't particularly loud or addressing me directly, I still found it interesting how well the human brain filters out sounds based on apparent importance and how had I not been doing this excercise I may not have noticed the beggar all together. How although my ears heard, my brain did not. Anyway as one might expect I went on and noticed various sounds but this assignment has a length requirement and these first few sentences really sum up the most important aspect of the experience.

Late for class

http://vimeo.com/23861559

Late for Class

http://vimeo.com/23861559

class feedback

I think the class was fun, yet not as informative or helpful as i might like. Though when one reads this statement it should also be taken into account that this is an introductory course # 1 and #2 I have been filming and editing video for 3 years...so no surprises there that I didn't get much out of the class academically. THe teachers however were good at making goals for students clear and responding to feedback, in particularly poorly worded questions as noted by the students. But truthfully it was a good experience and a good time for me as I had the chance to meet the love of my life, Catherine Wagler.

Late for Class

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QIPy2UvDtc

museum assignment

Today I went to the museum of the moving image. I would not say that I learned something about the moving image that I had not already been aware, but rather that it re-focused my existing knowledge and opinions about the photographic medium in motion. Film has a long and rich history and is ever evolving. It is a multifaceted medium which combines various concepts and culminates many media in order to create the illusion of movement. On the conceptual end of film it was also interesting to see how film had been even looked at as a scientific breakthrough, allowing Muybridge to freeze frame and study the movement of the human body as well as various other species. On the media end it was fun to take the time to acknowledge the asynchronous reality of film. Films to not exist within a vacum, nor do they represent spatial or temporal reality. A film is shot often out of sequence, re-dubbed later, scored with non-diegetic sound, the images and sound itself are treated, spliced, and combined before the final product is revealed. In truth film is a game of smoke and mirrors, a form of neo magic.  I participated in various interactive exhibits. The first was a simple stop motion approach to animation using a computer camera and a few objects to play with against a background. I found this exhibit fun because I have had experience doing short animations of my own combining photos with hand painted frames. I also ventured into the dubbing booths where i decided to insert all sorts of funny and lude audio content. I even tried out the exhibit which allowed me to swap different music tracks over Vertigo so that i could experience the images in new ways. This trip gave me no new knowledge of the media, but did help to broaden my understanding and deepen the specifics of my knowledge of film and film history.

lobster love

I had lobster for the first time recently and discovered that i love them and can not stop eating the little water bugs.

Hunter exploration and fun

Me and a very cool gal named Justyne Henley explored  the Thomas Hunter  building and opened every door we could find... that we weren't supposed to open.

Artist Statement

       My name is Alexander Martinez and I am a visual artist. 

I am currently employed as a videographer, and am studying film. 

What I hope to do in film is to culminate the skills i have learned

from my experience in painting, photography, animation, and music. 

These various mediums are in a sense the building blocks of cinema,

and this will help me to communicate my conception of existence

effectively to my audience.

      Here is one example of a concept which i have become obsessed

with and that has cropped up in recent paintings and sketches. 

The flesh is a bewildering topic and one of much fascination to me 

personally because of its unsettling nature. It can be a source of warmth,

emotional comfort, or an object of sexual desire, and yet the flesh can

also disgust and repel us. This is because of the disconnect between

the body and the soul. 

      When a lover puts their arm around you, we think nothing of it. 

It is merely he or she who touches us. But what is actually touching us?

If we were to sever the limb of that lover and they were to place it on you

with intent of touching you, would you not say that both scenarios 

are the same in that your lover has touched you? No, obviously you 

would not, and this is because the severing of the limb forces our

consciousness to realize that the arm is only an appendage and

that the person lies not within the body but somewhere else, 

somewhere vague and intangible.