FST 553-800 Experimental - Meg Lansaw

I shall be forthcoming that I feel biased to this article. The entire time I was reading I thought of Cucalorus and my decade of programming indie films. Meeting filmmakers who make their films for the love of the art regardless if they financially pay off. That is a true filmmaker at heart. Seeing so many people in these art house cinemas reminded me of the days when I lived in a larger city, Columbus, OH. We had multiplexes and IMAX, but I always gravitated toward four microcinemas and a larger screening atmosphere at the Wexner Center for the Arts. They'd often have Q&A session which were sometimes as good as the films!!! My appreciation for these passion pieces gave me confidence that I could do the same. With a will there is a way. I moved to Wilmington to be a part of this type of community. The section in the article about a film being screened in a school bus made me smile. I shot a commercial for Cucalorus in their magic bus and can completely envision smashing a doz...

The reflection of my sound design experience was like a shattered mirror on a tile floor, or a boat sinking into it's reflection in the sea. I totally bombed this one. What's unfortunate is I love working with sound and had my brain not be such a literal one, I think I could've made something really cool. Woulda coulad shoulda. At the end of the day, even if I went too narrative, I still stand by the unintentional narrative I told. The cycle of the life of a chicken is disturbing to me. It's such a sad existence. As many Investigation Discovery murder shows I have watched, when I hear the word carcass, I think of animal slaughter. Perhaps my literality (is that even a word?) was a means to express how I truly feel about factory farming. If I could go back, I would try to keep the soundscape the same and duplicate it in incriments, play them backwards, or work with the durations. There is so much I wish I'd have done differently, but at the end of the day my heart wo...

My Sound Experience I would call acoustically live and full reverb of "French" words since I realized I had a blog title that led to a big white page. I thought I'd littered it with letters, but perhaps I am still traumatized by Belazs article and my brain wandered off in perplextion. Or maybe I have synethesia and thought this empty white space was a piece of toast. Gluten free toast that is. Sound Experience: I always appreciate sound projects. As a filmmaker and editor, there is nothing worse than trying to clean up bad sound... or have unusable sound!!! Sound Design can only hide so much. During my foley experience, I really enjoyed using random objects in my house to create super creepy sounds. The slash of a butterknife on a metal footstool sounded like something out of Halloween! I gravitated towards metal objects because I really enjoyed the variety of sounds I could make simply by turning a mixing bowl upside down. I also used a plastic container and rapidly ...

"I never throw anything away." - Jonas Mekas Although not a hoarder (per se:), I have a hard time throwing things away as well. Everything has a purpose or meaning, and whenever you rid of something you've had for 20 years, you need it within a week. Mekas carrying his Bolex camera in a laundry bag for safety supports the commitment to his art. Even when the Bolexs would retire or break, he would save them amongst the countless documents and negatives organized into metal filing cabinets, folders, and boxes. It would be blasphemous to toss these relics, so they live in a confined space like a brain in abundance of memories. Although a morbid point of view, I imagine Mekas as the kind of man wo when he passes, no one will know what to do with all of these documents. Will they become the photographs strangers finger through in the bargain bin at the City Mission? What happens to the treasures that are someonelse's trash? I ponder Mekas' point of view of memor...

This is an interesting follow up to the Belazs article. The concept of Cymatics is precisely what I was battling... Balazs stated that sounds throw no shadow. Sounds cannot produce shapes in space. My opposition of several Balazs' theories were supported by Even Grants' demonstration of Cymantics...the visualization of sound. The use of a cymascope demonstrated the visual patterns of sound waves, backing up my theory. I even saw some shadow. As for Synethesia, I find it fascinating and confusing. It did bring about curiousity as to why we associate blue with cold, or red with hot? Blue is actually the hottest part of a flame, but fire is also considered orange, not red. Why? Who decides these things, how are they so inherent to us? Perpaps I'm a bit off course with that but feel it worth a mention. And the food association requires more time to digest. Would PTSD be considered synethetic? Would sudden sounds trigger associations with other senses fall into that catego...

Hi y'al1! Thank you for your patience as I'm still navigating Google Drive. I resolved the issue and my sounds are ready for your ears! I hope you will take a moment to check them out! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LPS1HPNJXso9P6F0QRFgH18KPMxyNyFf/view?usp=sharing

The One Tree Hill bridge is a favorite spot of mine. As I softly scribbled notes to my crinkled notebook, notating what I heard, the sound of a foreign voices scattered from different directions. Opening my eyes to see what I was hearing, three girls were laughing giddily as they made their squeaky Sharpie writing on metal: Lucas & Peyton forever. Although unknowing of the words being spoken, their tone spoke for itself. Sounds of pictures snapping on iPhones brought about happy emotions for me. The fact a show that wrapped here so long ago still has a voice is music to my ears!

Ironically there is filming happening on my street today. The sound of the ITC police officer's vehicle hums outside my window. An occasional "Rolling" and "Cut" are heard from afar, voices of co-workers I schlepped beside for so many years. The generator is tucked around the corner, away from set in order not to ruin takes from the constant humming. Trailer stairs squeak as a grip jumps on the back gate with a Teamster standing by... "Gate going down!". The sounds that I hear could be considered to some as "noise"... but to me, I associate those sounds with home.

Theory of the Film: Sound by: Bela Balazs This article was very interesting in many senses and Balazs' theory is beautifully written using descriptive "sound" words. Within the segment of Discovery of Noise (perceived as confused noise), some form of the word chaos was used seven times: chaotic clamor, chaotic noise, art saves us from chaos, specific kind of chaos, redeem us from the chaos of shapeless noise, a lifeless chaos of sound, and how the sound camera will intervene in this chaos of sound. The constant state of chaos is comprised of the many sounds in the acoustic landscape in which we live, far beyond just human speech. The vast conversational powers of life incessantly influences and directs out thoughts, and emotions. Meanings attached to hearing a creaky floorboard creaking in a deserted room could be interpreted as creepy or paranormal. A deathbed beetle ticking in old furniture brings about a sense of creepy crawly disgust. Sounds don't have to be a...

Rather than given a comprehensive response to The Absolute Film, I'd like to highlight poignant moments that stood out... Dr. William Moritz states, The term "Absolute Film" was coined by analogy with the expression "Absolute Music". Excerpt: "The more unique thing that cinema could do is present a visual spectacle comparable to auditory music, with fluid dynamic imagery rhythmic paced by editing..." The analogy between film and music is on the note; each perform their own dance. Eggling collaborating with a student to animate his work by cutting tin foil and altering the shapes apperaance/disappreance, motion and size of his artwork, then passing away weeks later is quite poetic. He may be gone, but his work will live on forever.

EXT. BRIDGE - DAY As I chose the location for my first shot, I sat and observed the light before taking my first shot. The sun shown upon me from behind, casting shadows of my head and pen on white paper. The sun's rays beamed through the metal guardrails creating diagonal shadows on the walkway. The crisscross patterns of the bridge structure scattered as clouds shifted, creating a sense of traveling opacity. As the clouds shifted, the sunshine illuminated on the white painted steel. The guardrail now exposed to a different light temperature, cast shadows of the guardrail I observed prior, and created a pattern similar in appearance to sprocket holes on celluloid film. The sky was telling me it was time to take my first snap!

INT. SUNROOM - DUSK Sitting in the sunroom at dusk, my eyes gravitated toward the blinds where the remainder of the day's light began to set. The 45 degree angled opening of the blinds cast slivers of slowly diminishing light on the floor. The windows were frosted by the frigid weather outside, diffusing the view to my neighbor's house. The brick siding of their home became more visually textured as the light continued to fade. Headlights from passing cars created quick bursts of light through the three windows of the front door, and cast rectangular light in motion, then slowly faded to black. Seated in the same position the duration of the sun setting, to dusk, to dark, the brightness faded into black where I could no longer see my pen.