Explorative Storytelling [Part II]

I found a definition for the topic in which I am writing about:

[Ethnographic Cinema]

And here I thought I was original with 'Explorative Storytelling.' In my research that led me to this specific genre of filmmaking, I came across an article by Laura Catalán Eraso that I found very enlightening on why Ethnographic filmmaking is important. You can view the website here or the whole article here but allow me to utilize some of its main points to ground my position on why this type of storytelling is so foundational to you and western culture as a whole.

"Ethnographic cinema is a product of social science, especially of anthropology, and as such has mirrored the developments and "crisis of representation" within these fields. Through the audiovisual language, ethnographic cinema has proven to be a unique medium of representation, able to capture sensuality and expressiveness that can hardly be grasped through other languages."

Reason 1: Ethnographic Cinema is a unique medium of representation capable of translating emotions. I have always argued that we are a visual culture and I don't see storytelling to be any exception.

"It demonstrates the role of film in illuminating the "intercultural" dynamics between minority (participant) and majority (researcher) and in challenging the traditional power relations between the researcher and his/her "subjects". Ethnographic filmmaking is a research technique that has evolved considerably since its early colonial usage (based largely around disempowered and stereotyped representations of otherness)"

Reason 2: Otherness. Don't worry, I promise it's important.

The idea behind otherness (or alterity for a fancier word) is crucial. I think all too often Americans see other methods of living, other than their own, as wrong. The correct term should be "different."  "Different" is not necessarily "wrong".

In the next few blog posts I will give examples of different methods of living that I witnessed during my stay in Papua New Guinea that contrast the way we do things here in the States.I challenge you to view these differences as a shift in your cultural norm and allow yourself to see past your Western bias.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Giant,

~Alan

Explorative Storytelling [Part I]

There is a tribe that resides on an island in northern Papua New Guinea that exists in completely different circumstances than we do as middle class Westerners. The food they eat, the way they communicate, their methods of child rearing, their justice system; all these things are vastly divergent from our cultural norms. In the weeks that I stayed in a village there, I was able to experience these cultural shifts of my western norms. These are the stories that I want to dwell on.

This poses an interesting topic of discussing based around the central question:

 'How important are these cultural differences to our Western way of living?'

I had the privilege of living with the Sursurunga tribe in New Ireland. To me, the stories that reside with these people are unlike any stories we have heard here in the States. I was submersed in a culture that radically changed how I saw my own.

In the blog entries that follow this one I want to explore this tribe's methodologies and ideologies and analyze the worth of such beliefs to the common westerner. At this point I am unsure if there is any value in these foreign stories for an American but I want to explore it nonetheless. 

For those interested, here is the trailer for the documentary I am making on this tribe. The stories outlined in the trailer are separate from those that I will be discussing in this blog. I aim to focus on the stories of my experiences as an American rather than the stories of this tribe's cultural history and Christianity.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Giant,

~Alan

Machinima [Part 3] Artist Statement

The finished film is currently rendering. Don't be fooled, dividing this project into three blog entries makes it sound simple. It is almost 6am and after yet another 11 hour editing session we are up to over 80 hours of post production efforts alone. I will discuss the final stage of completing this project and then discuss the work as a whole in the following paragraphs.

Concluding with Sound
Since we were only pulling from two visual sources we were left only two audio sources (makes sense, right?). This left the entire film feeling sloppy and unfinished... because it was. Relying on the ever faithful sound database from freesound.org and a random assortment of prerecorded game-specific sound effects from Halo: Reach, we slowly but surely created new atmospheres, textures, and music to support our visuals.

There is an interesting relationship between visuals and sound. As we finished the final touches on our sound layers we began to notice our visual flaws disappear. I, at one point, turned to Chance and said, "I almost forget that we're blue screened now." And it was true, the sound masked many issues we were struggling with fixing pre-sound editing. You can see my many layers of sound here.

Artist Statement and the Film as a Whole
Never have I put a month's work into a film project let alone a film project for school. Chance and I saw such potential in the idea behind this piece that we couldn't help but put in the extra effort to make this film an experience for us and the viewer and I believe we have (speaking for us of course).

There were talents that both Chance and I brought to the table that the other did not necessarily specialize in and looking back on the growth, we sharpened each others skills and attitudes on the project.


As is typical with the films that I make, I have seen them so many countless times that the magic and creative sparkle that the idea brandished has seemed to disappear behind all the flaws and unnoticeable (to the unknowing eye) mistakes that I now see instead of the finished film. I must say that I am very excited to release this to public viewing in the coming days to see what reactions the film can really generate.

During the intense nights of editing I found myself frequently wondering why I was putting so much effort into a film that was merely a final project for a school class? And while finals are important and I generally try my hardest to produce a good work that represents my skills, I at times had a hard time justifying the hours I put into this project. That was then. Now, seeing the complete film, I am ecstatic to say that I made this from start to finish and I know Chance feels the same.

I think making films is like raising kids. And while I've never raised a kid I know that they require a ton of work to raise well producing a stable young adult which ends up being the 'reward' for the parents. In a similar fashion, film requires a ton of work that you often get tired of and wonder why you even started it to begin with. But in the end, after seeing the stable adult that your film has become, you can sit back as a proud parent and relish in the fact that it was your hard work that got it there.

And I'm not saying all this to pat myself on the back and praise the film I have made. I am saying this to come to terms with myself the reasons behind why this project was necessary to the degree that we brought it and believe those terms have been reached.


NEWS UPDATE*****
The video is officially on Bungie.net have a look!
Watch it on Vimeo
Watch it on YouTube


Your friendly neighborhood giant,


~Alan

Machinima [Part 2]

Chance and I have spent more time in front of a blue screen and a computer monitor than we have sleeping this last week but we have successfully matched all 82 shots in live action and composited them together with our captured footage from Halo: Reach.

And if I may say so myself...it looks darn good.

It wasn't easy looking at a laptop screen in the blue studio while trying to recreate the correct angles that we took in Halo. We surprised ourselves during the editing process at how many times we lucked out with precise (yet accidental) head turns and body movements that synced flawlessly with the game footage.

Not to mention the climactic fun of seeing the clips come into fruition after hours and hours of hoping that they would work.

The length of the final film is looking like it will be shorter than expected. Due to our awesome (not really) dialog we have shorter shots that move quickly and yet cover the story adequately. In hindsight we are glad we aren't looking at a 7-10 minute film for the sake of editing time and for the sake of the audience's attention span...thanks YouTube.

At this point in the editing process all live action is merged into the game footage leaving color correction and sound editing for rest of the weekend. Color correction is crucial for getting that 'in game' look to apply to our live footage. There will always be that look of virtuality that we will not be able to get with live action; two separate worlds indeed. Thankfully though, both Halo: Reach and the Canon 5D mII film in 24 frames/second.

Sound is huge. Watching the clips without sound backing them up is very boring and leaves little to be desired but that may be due to me watching the clips over and over and...over again.

From the few people who have seen our progress, we are getting smiles and good jobs all around. We hope the internet (specifically the internet gaming) community will pick right up on the idea of live action meeting their favorite game. Who knows, with enough posts we may get this thing to go viral.

It's amazing how much the internet community eats up Halo machinima vids. We have our fingers crossed in hopes that Bungie (the people who made the Halo franchise) pick up on our film and re-posts it on their website where millions of users/players visit daily!

Until next week,

~Alan

Machinima [Part 1]

Machinima (pronounced /məˈʃiːnɨmə/ or /məˈʃɪnɨmə/) is the use of real-time graphics rendering engines (a game engine), mostly three-dimensional (3-D), to generate computer animation

And when it comes down to it, there isn't anything better than playing video games for homework...10 hours of video games to be exact. Last night my co-producer, Chance, and I played 10 hours of Halo: Reach to capture the 67 shots we needed for our latest film tht mixes live action actors mixed into a machinima world of Halo: Reach.

The process was as follows:

I. Storyboard the film. When dealing with a digital world you need to know what your shots are doing and how they're flowing because as we learned, plot can go south very quickly. You can see our storyboards here.

II. "Acting" it out with virtual characters. We had to suit up our avatars and move them through a given level with the positions of our "real" actors in mind. I imagine there is some kind of expensive technology that could merge us and them but we made due.

III. Capturing the scene in HD. We purchased a PCI-e HD capture card by Aver Media that allowed us to capture anything that was plugging into the hdmi slot (for us, the xbox).

Ten hours later we have 67 raw shots that need to be arranged, cut up, and corrected to prepare for the live action shots that will be done in front of a blue screen.

So far so good.

Your friendly neighborhood giant,
~Alan

Skype Film Execution

The deed is done and the result is a Skype music video...or sorts.

I had 5 contributors volunteer their vocal talents to the project. I laid down a basic beat with my own voice and made it a youtube video that sent to all who helped me. This allowed everyone to build off the same beat with a consistent tempo.

I found that people got a tad embarrassed and for decent reason (they were after all making funny noises during a vidchat that's being recorded) so the depth of the layering didn't go as deep as I would have preferred.

This resulted in a semi-anticlimactic song that makes for a fun listen for about one time through (or maybe I've listened to it myself one too many times...).

The images you see on the screen are all layered screen captures of the individuals who helped me. I attempted to sync all the audio with the appropriate video but I gave up on that around 3am. The result is a rather abstracted view of the Skypees and yet has a flow in and of itself.

All in all it was a good project, stressful, but good. Screen capture software lacks nearly everything you need it to do so my frustrustions were technical alone.

View Skype: The Music Video here.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Giant,
~Alan

Skype Film Production

Alas, I have begun the first stages of the Skype Film project.

It took me several passes to get an idea solidified. At first I anticipated writing out a script about a boy who is trying to Skype with the girl of his dreams but she gets bogged down in a conference chat with him and like 4 other friends.

Then as I thought through the kind of process that would involve (filming the skit 6 times anchored off one character's dialogue and hoping it would sync up in the end) I began to consider other things to film. By far the most difficult part about a Do It Yourself (DIY) film is finding a subject matter that s interesting enough to make the film about.

In class today I had an idea: Make a layered music video.

How, you ask? I would begin the film by laying down a simple track with my voice (something simple like a bass beat or something). I would render that and put the sound on youtube as a video. The next person who helped me would watch/listen to the youtube link with my voice and during a Skype conversation with me, add a beat on top of mine.

The idea would be to have at least 5 or 6 layers of beat to create a Skype...techno song? Yeah, something like that.

If you would like to help me in this endeavor and get your voice added to musical awesomeness add me on Skype. Do it now. alan.marsala (the one in San Diego)

We'll see how it turns out! I have a tendency to aim big and downscale as I go so bare with me.

Your friendly neighborhood giant,
~Alan