Rush Post #9 - Option Two

Funnily enough, I am using Exit Through the Gift for my final project essay.

I think the narrative tones/perspective of the two films are at points very similar. Both seem to have this underlying sarcasm towards their subject. Guy Maddin reflects on his childhood with this tinge of spite in his tales. Maybe more than a tinge. In Banksy's film, there is a subtler form of this once Theirry goes off on his own to create art. His success is treating with confusion and a bit of disbelief. It might also just be the tone of the narrator's voice, but there seems to be a very low opinion of Theirry.

Both of the films also seem to have a physical embodiment of the observer (the gaze?). Guy Maddin plays the role in his film while Theirry plays in Gift Shop

Rush Post #8

Sans Soleil was a bizarre film to watch. It was structured very much like free-formed letter, one that a person allowed their stream of conscious to write. Each section of the film was vaguely related to each other, not always in the same way. Sometimes not at all, it was like the brain skipped to another thought taken there by the flow of the mind. That is why I think the images of water were so prevalent throughout most of the film. They were never really talked about or mentioned, water and wave, but they seemed to play a rather important part in portraying memory. The film-maker always seems to present the audience with images of some sort of moving water when introducing a new montage (the museum, the festivals, etc.). It is as if those moments are stand in for the brain jumping subject or the change in the stream of consciousness. Channels, rivers, and coastlines are the most common water features shown. The water is always moving in some manner, in a way simulating the proverbial turning of the mind's gears. There are a few scenes with still water, those moments always feel like a lull in the film's momentum... like it is taking longer to think. There are about 26 or 27 instances of water imagery.

Rush Post #7

For my final project, I am going to write a new analytical essay on Exit Through the Gift Shop. It will most likely look at the diegetic space that the film lays out for itself as well as the perspective shifts that occur, including the fairly (I feel) major one that occurs late in the film. Those discussions may take me in to talking about the other two concepts but I think I am going to try and focus on diegesis and perspective.

Rush Post #6

Night Mail's audio was difficult to understand, so it was not entirely clear what was taking place. It is sort of easy to infer that the mail train acts as the life blood of daily English life. Without the nightly deliverance of mail, business transactions (at this time in history) would have grinded to a halt. Levers play a part in to that sentiment. The wrong turn of the wrong lever at the wrong moment could muck the whole system up. The largest part that levers play is in giving instructions to the trains and changing up the directions of the tracks (this is seen about 2 minutes in to the film as well as 7-9 minutes). This mechanization lends itself to the national identity of a country that wants to appear on the cutting edge of technology. Smaller levers pop up in the background of film, on phones (5 minutes in)and used to catch/retrieve the bags of mail from the side of the tracks (18-19 minutes in).

Rush Post #5

According to Dictionary.com, militarization is to equip something or someone with armed forces, military supplies, or the like. In the case of the film Triumph of the Will, however, a secondary definition becomes more apt. Militarization can also mean to imbue with militarism. This concept is strong in this piece of propaganda. It can been seen all through this film. From the national flags plastered on to every surface, the hundreds of troops who have long call-and-responses memorized, the perfect military style buzz-cuts on every young male, the chaotic fervor created by the appearance of the military leaders. Nearly everything shows the military influence that Hitler imbued his version of Germany with. This plays in to what we refer to as the Gaze. This piece emphasizes the fervor in which the people followed a charismatic leader and how easy it would be to be sucked in to the energy that followed the Nazi party in it campaign to reclaim Germany.

Rush #4

For my final project I am thinking about writing the analytical paper or helping out with the Citizen L project. I am leaning more towards the paper as I am not sure of the time that I can afford to give up in the next couple months with the prep for my senior project, grad school applications and my other course work. As for topic, I am not sure what I would do. There are two things bouncing around my head, talking about the credibility and message on temporary art that is highlighted in Exit Through the Gift Shop or about the couple religious documentaries that I have had to watch this semester. Just not sure yet on the topic.

EDIT: OCTOBER 19, 2011 AT 12:55 AM

I think I figured out what I actually what to do for my final project. Originally I wanted to do a creative project, in filming a short documentary on the process of a theater production from the viewpoint of a designer. It is the thing that I live for and would love to share it with others. Unfortunately, it is an incredibly long process and started long before spring semester of last school year ended. So I didn't think that I could do what I wanted until I was talking about it today with some other students who are in the other film class. They suggested I story board my ideas out and write a type of proposal for it, including photos for the tech process that I took.

Would that work as a creative project for this class?

A series of story boards detailing my process for Oo-Bla-Dee accompanied by a short proposal with what I hope to achieve showing this experience to people who are unaware of the theater process.

Rush Post #2

So in the few small segments that we watched before watching the entirety of Nanook of the North, I focused on what looked like Polar bear pelts and made my gram to track through the film polar bears/polar bear pelts. The first instance that polar bear pelts appear is as Nanook’s trousers, which no one else in the tribe seems to wear. It is as if the pure white pelts were saved to note people in power among the native peoples. This also seems to come out of the fact that the rest of the pelts get sold to the traders at the ‘white’ trading post down the river. Those pelts perhaps are very rare and worth a lot more to the traders than the seal parts. Of course, the polar bears didn’t show up again until later in the film when the family group set up camp and had gone hunting. Nanook made two little polar bears out of snow for one of his sons to practice hunting using a bow and arrow. It seems interesting that they chose to sculpt that rather than say a fox or a seal. It seems to be a symbol of power if one is able to take down a bear of that size on their own. Nanook has claimed to have taken two down on his own, by hand. My particular gram didn't appear again in the film. I am not sure if I picked the right thing to track given the lack of visual information. It does seem though that polar bears do mean something of a place of power. I just wish that it would have been clearer.