Film Festival

Threads will be entered in to the Kansas City filmmakers Jubilee for 2011. I am looking forward to the upcoming events! I will keep posting updates!

THREADS

Threads: Directed by Matthew Wilson from Matthew Wilson on Vimeo.

Finished Piece

Response: THE FUTUTE OF THE FEATURE

THE FUTURE OF THE FEATURE

Through history, we have seen so many examples of the foundation of the art of film making becoming strong. This article talks about Godard, and his 35mm cameras and how strongly technology of the time influences the kind of images that can be made. I believe this to be so strongly true because, with the advancement of technology, we see things in a different perspective. With 3-D taking of the movie industry, film makers will again have to adjust to the new growing demand for better audience communication to the technology. It is something that is inescapable. I believe it to be very true that ideas transcend time and that technology does not.

Response: By Design;New Digital Cinema

By DESIGN; NEW DIGITAL CINEMA

This article stated that since 2000 music videos and design films have been based on contemporary media. It also stated that in regards to hybrid spaces, it is important to see that current music videos are mixing the ideas of what is "real" with what is obviously constructed. These two worlds have recently become increasingly difficult to separate.

A great example of a short film that has been made recently is the Chanel #5 commercial with Nicole Kidmann. They way in which the sets were fabricated is obvious, however its effectiveness its easily seen. I hope to apply this into my work. I am currently making a large green screen that I can work with alone the same lines as this work.

The art of commerce is something that applies strongly to me. I want to be able to make works that I can apply to the commercial world as well. I am continuing my exploration of videos for this.

Chanel No5 - The Film nicole kidman from Electric Phoenix on Vimeo.

MOVEMENT

Response to MOVEMENT

There is a big difference between movement and film actual movement. In film even though we think that we see "movement", we are actually only seeing a representation of movement. To see that as being true we can do "freeze frames".

I want to begin shooting some things at higher frame rates such as 1000 to help push the idea of motion or movement. I will work doing slow motion mainly with macro shots. The reason that I want to do this is because feel that it is showing the audience something in a way that they do not normally see. This is the main factor that I feel keeps an audiences attention because people are constantly seeking the advancement of their knowledge without having difficult means doing so.

ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS

Response to ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS

There is a definite connection between the beginning and end of a story. It is very apparent that one must learn to structure a narrative as effectively as possible to get the best audience reaction. Another important thing that I have learned to remember is who you are making your film to be viewed by, and that you can't make everyone love your piece. There is no film that has ever been made that was loved by everyone. You must learn to be effective, precise, and perceptive.

In the article that I read, it says to know how your film is going to end before you know how it is going to begin or how your main body of your plot will be structured. I found this especially true when I was making the narrative for Threads. When I decided to have the ending the way it was, it was much easier to structure the events that transpired in between the beginning and ending.

Overall, this article helped me learned how to more effectively communicate an idea or plot to an audience. The "classic" principles that have been established in film making industry can be studied in their effectiveness and applied to my work.

RESEARCH

Hauschka - The Key from Jeff Desom on Vimeo.

This video created by Jeff Desom is very inspiring to me. The way that not only the narrative and video are edited but the feeling that I get when I watch the edit. It is a very tight and yet expansive exploration in a simple concept. I also particularly enjoyed how the piano was bouncing against a still frame.

WAITING ROOM

Working Title: Amtrak, Waiting Room

Description:(More Coming)

This production is going to be using elements of traditional narrative and cinema to trap the audience into a cinematic love story they can't get enough of. Its purpose is to remain intriguing and moving, while still engaging the viewer into understand the importance of time and humility. The images shown are three stills that I took of locations for my shooting. The large inclosed space in Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri.

This location was chosen for its elegance and timelessness. The architecture will be echoed into the wardrobe and costume design. The water/dock location was chosen to be a ying/yang effect with the massive construction that the Union Station implies. I hope that this short film will create a sense of balance and coverage with the audience while still teaching them a lesson and leave them wanting more.

Equipment: Canon 5D MarkII, Light Reflectors, Tripods, Tracking equipment

Costume/Makeup Design: Matthew Wilson

Estimated Completion Date: Sept. 23, 2011

Elevator Music from Matthew Wilson on Vimeo.

My latest movie.

This is a still from my current production of Elevator Music (Working Title). This work is focused on the expectation of a viewer to a customary setting. A landscape is an extremely familiar setting in which you expect to hear birds chirping and wind whistling if that is what you see. In my film I am giving you auditory and visual material that does not match. Not only does this film deal with your expectation but also the destructive event that is happening in this still. This production will be complete by the end of April, 2010. I am facing weather issues currently with the ending of production so hopefully everything will be completed on time.

Wish me luck.

An Audience Connection

This audio experimentation primarily deals with the idea of creation of dynamic space through an audio experience. In the new project that I will be working on, my landscapes will need audio that gives the viewer a more creative rendering of space than a direct audio reference. The new project will include sequences that deal with water and lands connection. A strong element of space will be the cracking of thunder. This will lead the viewer to a premonition of something becoming wet. Overall, this experiment is helping me further understand how to advance the audio capabilities.

"My idea for this Soft Cinema edition was to create a film without a pre-formulated

narrative. I started with two assumptions. Firstly that meaning and narrative

coherence can be created through associative chains. Secondly – presuming that

human perception works to connect images that are presented together and to

integrate them into a coherent, meaningful, structure – that it is possible to create

these associative chains through the visual properties of images."

My idea for a new project to work on is to use to idea of "celebrity" that was created in pop culture and expose its randomness and use of "image." I will use footage that makes the viewer believe that the individual being documented will not be aware of the camera in some scenes. In other scenes, the character will be playing into the media/camera in their own characterization. This project will be an exploration of the construction of image and identity.

Response: Lev Manovich-New Media, From Borges to HTML

New Media means “Computer based artistic activities.” The beginning of the idea of new media did not become popularized until approximately 1980. In the beginning the new media art world had many problems at gaining acceptance within the art community. There was much hesitation from not only the government but the fine art world. An interesting piece of information that I was unaware of that this article stated was that in the 1990’s the art world in the United States was the most conservative cultural superpower in the world. Places such as countries in Europe were far ahead of the United States. A great hesitation among the art community was the idea of distribution. The idea of the gallery or auction house was taken completely out of the picture. This was intimidating to the art world because of its long standing use of traditional practice. Another controversy was the idea of infinite copies. New media therefore requires one to be an interactive component in a work. This medium finally elevated itself out of the underground art community into the main stream of art. The complexity of the medium of New Media is still to this day a difficult way in which to solidly understand and break down. Also the discussion of cyberculture was intriguing in this essay. Its relation to our culture and how it can be used to edit down what it is we can see. For me the most interesting aspect of this essay is that our culture can not put a definition of the idea of new media because with each new year some other form of society becomes reliant on the computer.

Response: Janet Murray, Inventing the Medium

“The engineers see the challenge of our time, finding the key to survival in an atomic age, a challenge to our intellects. The world has become more difficult to understand, so we need better ways of thinking about it, more powerful methods of mastering complexity.” This quote is an excellent example of what the medium of digital filmmaking is having issues with. It is impossible to fully comprehend what it takes to create a complex work. The computer is a tool just like any other in which a work is created with. This tool is compared to the printing press that was created 500 years ago and how its power was used for good and bad. The computer is a great example of a subject in which the potential is unlimited. The article also touches on how our current culture’s knowledge is more organized because of the Internet than any other culture before. This statement is a perfect example of what our culture is seeing today because in the last 100 years alone the knowledge that humanity has been able to produce is 100x what it previously was aware of. It was a necessity to be able to organize this information into a dispersible manner. It is a rational way to think about technology as a dangerous tool because of its quickness and ability to adapt. Our culture must just look into its past to consider what it has learned and apply it to our progression. We must always remember that all art is a tool of the collection of knowledge that humanity has been able to gather.

Untitled from Matthew Wilson on Vimeo.

Backwards Movie

Andrea, Party for One from Matthew Wilson on Vimeo.

This is a short film that I have produced primarily dealing with the characters relation to her identity. This film is also loosely based on the dogma 95 film theory.

My current project with use of high key lighting and predetermined color ranges for post production desaturation.

Colonialism, Racism, and Representation

Films are unavoidably constructs, fabrications, and representations of reality. It is improbable to argue that the idea of the “real” in digital filmmaking is a blurry line. The directors job is to take things that exist in physical space and interpret them into a viewing experience. As the viewer, one can not smell, hear, or feel what the director was during the time the event originally existed.

It is impossible to avoid criticism about being unfriendly to a certain genre of society. Racism for example, is a hot topic of our current times. There are going to be films made that target this specific issue. Within our generation, we have first hand experience at what it feels like the have racism as a part of our everyday lives. Therefore, it is a relatable subject in which audiences search venues such as movie theatres to help distinguish the “real,” and “unreal.”

There is a baseline respect that every human being should pay each other. All prejudices should be tossed aside so that one can completely understand the world to the fullest of their ability. As for political propaganda, it is necessary that it all be disposed of as soon as possible. There is not enough truth and trust in politics for one to rely on its message. The same respect should also be shared to the role of women in films. The equality of all subjects in film will turn an argument of biases into an understanding of work completed. If your motive is to make a statement or to make money it is not difficult to target an audience that feels more emotions towards your film. You must simply fill them with relatable subjects and views to the audience you are catering. It is the responsibility of the director to take charge of the responsibility film gives them.