Introduction
“How can I use unconventional forms to express myself?”
That is the question we were tasked with answering in our own ways in the first few weeks and months here at freestyle. Through essays, learning new skills in writing, designing, ad in the film making process, I have answered this question in my own unique way, along with others.
The thing I value most in the process of being a freestyle student is easily the creative aspects/ At the start of the year we were given tools , learned how to use some of them, and told on many occasions to make something unique, answer a question, or anything else. In English we wrote an essay about WHY art is important, a vague question which can mean anything to anyone. We were told to write Haikus and to record them in Digital Media, and in Film, we used our conceptual statements from our Haikus to create our very first films.
Haiku
Our task as the first project at freestyle was to create a haiku- a Japanese style of poetry that has three sentences, going in order of 5 vowels, 7 vowels, and 5 vowels. These haikus were based on a conceptual statement.
The one I received was “I am exploring the feeling of anger by standing up for a friend.”
When I first gained this statement I had a few vague ideas in mind. some were of a selfish friend who used the tragedy of another for their own benefit. however, for this particular project, I instead settled on a totally objective reality, or piece of existence, which only benefits other things as a by-product. everything it helps is simple collateral to keep itself functioning. I used the sun as my photo due to it’s power and nature as a totally objective force, which exists, and while yes its existence is beneficial to us as a people and a world even, the sun does not care and only exists due to chaotic coincidence.
Haiku video will be here shortly- here is a bit of the behind the scenes!
Essay/Presentation
In our English class, we were tasked with creating an essay which asked a very difficult question, one which many have tried to answer: Why does art matter? In class we were articles by art professionals of all kind, given this question, and told to find an artist which we believed not only tied into any article of our choosing but as well as carried th bleeifs we had about art The articl I picked was
See audio version here:
FILM:
Double Mint
In film one of our first real projects came from a short lesson we learned about Double Mint. Double Mint is a practice in which you have essentially a loned version of yourself, where you cut up the screen and make it appear as such. Here is the result:
Experimental Film
Finally, in my Film class we had our first major filming project. We used our English haiku prompts to create, with our learned skills in class such as camera work and color grading, a 1+ minute film expressing the emotion found in the prompt. Originally my idea was a lot more narrative based. As I stated before I attempted to express this emotion through a fundamental betrayal from one friend to another. However I came to understand this project was intended to be a lot more about any single emotion rather than the plot, character, or anything similar. So instead I decided to become a lot more vague, and use non human elements to represent the emotions. I chose to use hair and hats due to being such a binding combination, that was also practical.These two things are not unusual to see near each other.
Here is my original synopsis:
“My prompt is “Exploring the feeling of anger through standing up for a friend.”
When I first saw this idea I immediately thought of selfishness as the most connecting feeling. Someone using another’s sadness, grief, or hurt, as an excuse to commit an act which will only truly benefit themselves. As characters, a thing that stands up in a literal sense, or protects
See a hat. It is within an old place. It makes snoring noises. This is the only character it shows.
The hat has mismatched colored hair all around it.
There are scenes from a bird’s eye view in which the hair forms sound waves of audio clips. These audio clips are not actually played clearly but it’s giving a bitter ex best friend.
The hat spins.
The hair decays, there is a shot either panning up to the sky/sun/any single light source. From the perspective of the light now. The hat climbs up the wall to attempt to cover up the light. The light is covered. The location shifts into a darker location. Perhaps sad, or a more literal dark location. Noon literal could be hospital, literal could be outside in the dark.
The hair now moves in a chaotic manner, as it tries to form into a ball it ruptures over and over with chaotic (Copyright free!) music.
The hat crumples up, falling to the round. The scenery becomes beach/side by water, with a form of bright light somewhere.
The hat covers the hair, while the hair is safe , the hair moves chaotically within the hat. From the sun, hair, or heat within the hat, the hat and hair catch on fire. The last shot is simply the hat being destroyed with the hair in it.”
Final Result
Here is also a small behind the scenes, I essentially for many of the ‘Stop motion’ Scenes took a 3~ second recording and moved it just a tiny bit each time. Creating the affect. I also don’t have as many clips in the timeline due to multiple iterations, but as seen in the left hand side there very much a clip for every movement
