1. How did Bjork and Chris collaborate on the All is Full of Love video?
They both put their own ideas in and then chose the ones they were both happy with. Bjork had to stay in the same position as the robot and sing while Chris did photos of the movements. The after work was also very important in the process of making the video.
2. What techniques were used on the Portishead video to create the unusual slow motion effects?
The boy and singer, Beth Gibbons were filmed submerged in a huge water tank. Then these shots were super-exposed over the dark alley to create a dreamy but kind of a creepy effect. They also had to airbrush the air bubbles in post-production.
3. What other music video directors have gone to direct feature films? Name two and the feature films they made.
a, Michel Gondry - He started making music videos for a band he was the drummer in, then worked with for Bjork, The White Stripes, The Chemical Brothers, Paul McCartney, etc. His feature films include Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind (2004), The Science of Sleep (2006), etc.
b, Floria Sigismondi - She directed music videos for Marilyn Manson, Sugor Ros, Muse, The White Stripes, etc. In 2010 her first feature film was released, The Runaways.
4. Which famous sci-fi film did Chris Cunningham work on before he became a director?
After Stanley Kubrick seen Cunningham's work in the film, Judge Dredd, he asked him to design animatronic tests for the robot child character in his version of the film, A.I.. After working on that project for a year he left to become a director.
5. What makes his work different or original compared to other similar directors?
I think he is one of those few who isn't afraid of trying some new, strange, weird things that other directors would probably be scared to play around with. He combines the visuals with music perfectly.
Wednesday 28 March 2012
Cinematography - Visions of Light
1. What is the role of the cinematographer in film making?
The cinematographer extracts the directors ideas, helps them become visual. He decides how the camera should move, what mood and feeling the light should have. The cinematographer and the director work very close together.
2. Why did director Roman Polanski insist on using hand held camera in the film, Chinatown?
He wanted to get a really intimate, spontaneous behaviour from the actors with the camera being very close to them.
3. Name two films which use colour in a very symbolic way and describe what they suggest.
a, The Last Emperor (1987) use colour and light in a very symbolic way. In the film red is the colour of beginning. Yellow is the colour of identity, the colour that most represents the sun itself. Green is knowledge, a man from the western world comes on a green bicycle.
b, American Beauty (1999) uses the colour red which they bring through the whole film, that's is by far the most dominating colour. It represents the life force, it's sexualism, it's rebellion, it's transcendence. It has different meaning to every character.
4. In the film, Raging Bull why was the fight scene filmed it different speeds?
They used different speeds to capture different emotions. People remembered fight scenes as big flash photos from magazines, they wanted to give that back on the screen.
5. Who is the cinematographer for the film, Apocalypse Now and what is his philosophy?
Vittorio Storaro. He says a film can't be expressed by one person because it's a commune art. Light is very important in his work, he can show every emotion with light.
The cinematographer extracts the directors ideas, helps them become visual. He decides how the camera should move, what mood and feeling the light should have. The cinematographer and the director work very close together.
2. Why did director Roman Polanski insist on using hand held camera in the film, Chinatown?
He wanted to get a really intimate, spontaneous behaviour from the actors with the camera being very close to them.
3. Name two films which use colour in a very symbolic way and describe what they suggest.
a, The Last Emperor (1987) use colour and light in a very symbolic way. In the film red is the colour of beginning. Yellow is the colour of identity, the colour that most represents the sun itself. Green is knowledge, a man from the western world comes on a green bicycle.
b, American Beauty (1999) uses the colour red which they bring through the whole film, that's is by far the most dominating colour. It represents the life force, it's sexualism, it's rebellion, it's transcendence. It has different meaning to every character.
4. In the film, Raging Bull why was the fight scene filmed it different speeds?
They used different speeds to capture different emotions. People remembered fight scenes as big flash photos from magazines, they wanted to give that back on the screen.
5. Who is the cinematographer for the film, Apocalypse Now and what is his philosophy?
Vittorio Storaro. He says a film can't be expressed by one person because it's a commune art. Light is very important in his work, he can show every emotion with light.
Sam Taylor Wood
1. List two specific key relationships between Sam Taylor Wood's photography and film work?
Her work very much reflects her experiences and emotions, so all the photography and film work are self portraits in a way. The other important connection is that they both have stories, they have narratives.
2. How does the use of multi-screen installation in her work reflect narrative?
She use several screens that at first don't seem to have anything in common but they all connect to each other. Their placement also drives the viewer through the space they are in.
3. What other photographers use film as an integral part of their work? List two with examples.
a, Bruce Charlesworth who uses video to power a narrative within a specific space: Projectile (1982), Reality Street (1994).
b, Dough Hall use humour and irony in his work: Machinery for the Re-education of a Delinquent Dictator (1984), People in Buildings (1988-89).
4. Research three other video artist and explain their working philosophy.
a, Peter Campus, American born artist whose work includes video installations and tapes that explore issues of personal themes, reality and the flustered relationship between the viewer and a piece of work.
b, David Hall, British video artist who has done a lot to pass video as an art form. With his work he is trying to find out the essence of our existence itself and how to live our lives right.
c, Stan Douglas, Canadian artist whose work includes film and video installations with photography works. His work reflects the technical and social aspects of mass media as well as touches on the relationship between the races and politics.
5. Show an example of a specific gallery space or a site specific location where a video artist or film maker has created work specifically for that space and been influenced by it.
Sam Taylor Wood was invited to make a small exhibition in France, Vienna where she used that space's happy atmosphere as an influence to make a piece of work that when looked at would make people laugh.
Her work very much reflects her experiences and emotions, so all the photography and film work are self portraits in a way. The other important connection is that they both have stories, they have narratives.
2. How does the use of multi-screen installation in her work reflect narrative?
She use several screens that at first don't seem to have anything in common but they all connect to each other. Their placement also drives the viewer through the space they are in.
3. What other photographers use film as an integral part of their work? List two with examples.
a, Bruce Charlesworth who uses video to power a narrative within a specific space: Projectile (1982), Reality Street (1994).
b, Dough Hall use humour and irony in his work: Machinery for the Re-education of a Delinquent Dictator (1984), People in Buildings (1988-89).
4. Research three other video artist and explain their working philosophy.
a, Peter Campus, American born artist whose work includes video installations and tapes that explore issues of personal themes, reality and the flustered relationship between the viewer and a piece of work.
b, David Hall, British video artist who has done a lot to pass video as an art form. With his work he is trying to find out the essence of our existence itself and how to live our lives right.
c, Stan Douglas, Canadian artist whose work includes film and video installations with photography works. His work reflects the technical and social aspects of mass media as well as touches on the relationship between the races and politics.
5. Show an example of a specific gallery space or a site specific location where a video artist or film maker has created work specifically for that space and been influenced by it.
Sam Taylor Wood was invited to make a small exhibition in France, Vienna where she used that space's happy atmosphere as an influence to make a piece of work that when looked at would make people laugh.
Genius of Photography - Snap Judgements
1. How many photographs are taken in a year?
About 80 billion photographs are taken in a year all around the world.
2. What is Gregory Crewdson's modus operandi?
He works with a production crew, who do everything for him. He is only interested in the scene himself and the final photograph. He doesn't even like to hold a camera, the camera is just a necessary instrument for him.
3. Which prints command the highest price & what are they called?
Prints that command the highest price are usually the ones that were made by the photographer him/herself closest to the time the picture was actually taken. They are known as vintage prints.
4. What is a Fake photograph? Give an example and explain how & why is it fake.
If there is a blank in the history of the photograph, then it's fake. Lewis Hine's photograph the Powerhouse Mechanic. The same print was sold to many different people saying that it's original. To find out they developed a dating criteria which was borrowed from the FBI. There were certain kinds of chemicals called OBAs which were put into photographic paper but only from 1955. Hine died in 1940 and those prints did contain OBAs.
5. Who is Li Zhensheng and what is he famous for?
He was a red army news soldier, a photojournalist who in the 60s and early 70s found himself covering the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
6. What is the photographer's "holy of hollies"?
Photojournalism's super agency, Magnum which was founded as a cooperative in 1947 by photographers like Cartier-Bresson or Robert Capa.
7. How does Ben Lewis see Jeff Wall's photography?
He thinks that Wall didn't reinvent photography, he took it back to the 19th century, to painting where everything is creative; the people, the light, everything is constructed for a meaning.
8. Which famous photograph was taken by "Frank Mustard"?
Camille Silvy's River Scene France. He arranged where the people should stand, he added the artificial sky, he added leaves to the trees but Francois Moutard, known as Frank Mustard took the actual photograph.
About 80 billion photographs are taken in a year all around the world.
2. What is Gregory Crewdson's modus operandi?
He works with a production crew, who do everything for him. He is only interested in the scene himself and the final photograph. He doesn't even like to hold a camera, the camera is just a necessary instrument for him.
3. Which prints command the highest price & what are they called?
Prints that command the highest price are usually the ones that were made by the photographer him/herself closest to the time the picture was actually taken. They are known as vintage prints.
4. What is a Fake photograph? Give an example and explain how & why is it fake.
If there is a blank in the history of the photograph, then it's fake. Lewis Hine's photograph the Powerhouse Mechanic. The same print was sold to many different people saying that it's original. To find out they developed a dating criteria which was borrowed from the FBI. There were certain kinds of chemicals called OBAs which were put into photographic paper but only from 1955. Hine died in 1940 and those prints did contain OBAs.
5. Who is Li Zhensheng and what is he famous for?
He was a red army news soldier, a photojournalist who in the 60s and early 70s found himself covering the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
6. What is the photographer's "holy of hollies"?
Photojournalism's super agency, Magnum which was founded as a cooperative in 1947 by photographers like Cartier-Bresson or Robert Capa.
7. How does Ben Lewis see Jeff Wall's photography?
He thinks that Wall didn't reinvent photography, he took it back to the 19th century, to painting where everything is creative; the people, the light, everything is constructed for a meaning.
8. Which famous photograph was taken by "Frank Mustard"?
Camille Silvy's River Scene France. He arranged where the people should stand, he added the artificial sky, he added leaves to the trees but Francois Moutard, known as Frank Mustard took the actual photograph.
Genius of Photography - We are Family
1. Who said "The camera gave me the license to strip away what you want people to know about you, to reveal what you can't help people knowing about you", and when was it said?
Diane Arbus said it in the early 1960s.
2. Do photographers tend to prey on vulnerable people?
It has been a controversial subject over the decades on whether photographers do that. They can be compassioned about the subject or just driven by their hungry eyes but most of the cases they are simply curious.
3. Who is Colin Wood?
He was a skinny 6 years old boy when Diane Arbus took pictures of him in Central Park in 1962.
4. Why do you think Diane Arbus committed suicide?
She had great empathy for her subjects, maybe too much and she always wanted to be someone else but herself. She probably thought that photography can change that but it couldn't.
5. Why and how did Larry Clark shoot "Tulsa"?
In his hands photography became as personal as a written diary because he was an 'insider', he lived with his subjects, they were his friends and family. He wanted to give an insight of his life, of things no one wanted to know about.
6. Try to explain the concept of "confessional photography", and what is the "impolite genre"?
Confessional photography tries to capture the reality and intimity of life. Larry Clark opened up a new genre, the impolite genre, which basically does the same but with really nasty things that no one wants to know about.
7. What will Araki not photograph and why?
There is nothing Araki won't photograph. He takes photographs because he wants to remember, so the things he didn't take pictures of are the things he doesn't want to remember. Everything else is captured.
8. What is the premise of Post-modernism?
It's premise is that we now live in a culture full of media imagery and media models of how people live that our idea of how one lives and who one is, is made up with that kind of media myth.
Diane Arbus said it in the early 1960s.
2. Do photographers tend to prey on vulnerable people?
It has been a controversial subject over the decades on whether photographers do that. They can be compassioned about the subject or just driven by their hungry eyes but most of the cases they are simply curious.
3. Who is Colin Wood?
He was a skinny 6 years old boy when Diane Arbus took pictures of him in Central Park in 1962.
4. Why do you think Diane Arbus committed suicide?
She had great empathy for her subjects, maybe too much and she always wanted to be someone else but herself. She probably thought that photography can change that but it couldn't.
5. Why and how did Larry Clark shoot "Tulsa"?
In his hands photography became as personal as a written diary because he was an 'insider', he lived with his subjects, they were his friends and family. He wanted to give an insight of his life, of things no one wanted to know about.
6. Try to explain the concept of "confessional photography", and what is the "impolite genre"?
Confessional photography tries to capture the reality and intimity of life. Larry Clark opened up a new genre, the impolite genre, which basically does the same but with really nasty things that no one wants to know about.
7. What will Araki not photograph and why?
There is nothing Araki won't photograph. He takes photographs because he wants to remember, so the things he didn't take pictures of are the things he doesn't want to remember. Everything else is captured.
8. What is the premise of Post-modernism?
It's premise is that we now live in a culture full of media imagery and media models of how people live that our idea of how one lives and who one is, is made up with that kind of media myth.
Tuesday 27 March 2012
Genius of Photography - Paper Movies
1. Why did Garry Winogrand take photographs?
He liked to take photographs which he knew would make both the most liberal and educated, and the most politically conservative people kind of upset. He wanted to capture everything.
2. Why did "citizens evolve from blurs to solid flesh"?
At the beginning of the photographic history the exposure time was too long to capture the people on street photos, every town was a ghost town. But with the technology catching up, the exposure time got faster and the people appeared on the photos.
3. What was/is the "much misunderstood theory"?
It comes from Henri Cartier-Bresson's theory of the decisive moment.
4. Who was the godfather of street photography in the USA?
Garry Winogrand who became a kind of a 'pack leader' for a generation of hungry, young street photographers in the 1960s.
5. Who was Paul Martin and what did he do?
A British photographer who in 1896 took pictures in Great Yarmouth with a camera disguised as a brown paper parcel. He took photographs on the beach, his work shows that on the beach people could forget what being Victorian meant.
6. Who said "When I was growing up photographers were either nerds or pornographers"?
Ed Ruscha who in the 1960s produced a series of books which were milestones in photography and pop art. He took pictures of thing rather than people.
7. Why does William Eggleston photograph in colour?
Colour twists the content, it captures the real world better.
8. What is William Eggleston about?
It is hard to get words out of him but in an interview he said he is about photographing life today.
He liked to take photographs which he knew would make both the most liberal and educated, and the most politically conservative people kind of upset. He wanted to capture everything.
2. Why did "citizens evolve from blurs to solid flesh"?
At the beginning of the photographic history the exposure time was too long to capture the people on street photos, every town was a ghost town. But with the technology catching up, the exposure time got faster and the people appeared on the photos.
3. What was/is the "much misunderstood theory"?
It comes from Henri Cartier-Bresson's theory of the decisive moment.
4. Who was the godfather of street photography in the USA?
Garry Winogrand who became a kind of a 'pack leader' for a generation of hungry, young street photographers in the 1960s.
5. Who was Paul Martin and what did he do?
A British photographer who in 1896 took pictures in Great Yarmouth with a camera disguised as a brown paper parcel. He took photographs on the beach, his work shows that on the beach people could forget what being Victorian meant.
6. Who said "When I was growing up photographers were either nerds or pornographers"?
Ed Ruscha who in the 1960s produced a series of books which were milestones in photography and pop art. He took pictures of thing rather than people.
7. Why does William Eggleston photograph in colour?
Colour twists the content, it captures the real world better.
8. What is William Eggleston about?
It is hard to get words out of him but in an interview he said he is about photographing life today.
Genius of Photography - Right Time, Right Place
1. What is described as "One of the most familiar concepts in photography"?
In 1933 Henri Cartier-Bresson captured a moment that illuminated photography's potential, now known as the 'decisive moment'. It led to the creation of photojournalism.
2. Should you trust a photograph?
No, trusting a photograph was probably a huge mistake from the beginning.
3. What was revolutionary about the Leica in 1925?
It was compact, quiet and with the latest lens technology it gave birth to a whole new style of instant photography. The photographer was able to look through the lens and at he same time see the world around him/her.
4. What did George Bernard Shaw say about all the paintings of Christ?
He said he would exchange every painting of Christ fro one snapshot. Because photography captures reality.
5. Why were Tony Vaccaro's negatives destroyed by the army censors?
They contained images of dead G I's, decisive moments the world wasn't yet ready to accept.
6. Who was Henryk Ross and what was his job?
He was a Jewish photographer sent to the ghetto in Lodz for 4 years. He kept record of what was really going on there. Officially he was hired to document the production of goods but he took photographs of the every day life in the ghetto.
7. Which show was a "sticking plaster for the wands of the war", how many people saw it and what 'cliché' did it end on?
The Family of Men exhibition in New York, opened in 1955. By 1964 it had 9 million visitors. It ends with Eugene Smith's photo of his own children walking through garden into the light, it gives an optimistic and sentimental cliché for the life of future generations.
8. Why did Joel Meyerowitz photograph ground zero in colour?
Because he thought to photograph it B&W would be to keep it as a tragedy and he didn't want that.
In 1933 Henri Cartier-Bresson captured a moment that illuminated photography's potential, now known as the 'decisive moment'. It led to the creation of photojournalism.
2. Should you trust a photograph?
No, trusting a photograph was probably a huge mistake from the beginning.
3. What was revolutionary about the Leica in 1925?
It was compact, quiet and with the latest lens technology it gave birth to a whole new style of instant photography. The photographer was able to look through the lens and at he same time see the world around him/her.
4. What did George Bernard Shaw say about all the paintings of Christ?
He said he would exchange every painting of Christ fro one snapshot. Because photography captures reality.
5. Why were Tony Vaccaro's negatives destroyed by the army censors?
They contained images of dead G I's, decisive moments the world wasn't yet ready to accept.
6. Who was Henryk Ross and what was his job?
He was a Jewish photographer sent to the ghetto in Lodz for 4 years. He kept record of what was really going on there. Officially he was hired to document the production of goods but he took photographs of the every day life in the ghetto.
7. Which show was a "sticking plaster for the wands of the war", how many people saw it and what 'cliché' did it end on?
The Family of Men exhibition in New York, opened in 1955. By 1964 it had 9 million visitors. It ends with Eugene Smith's photo of his own children walking through garden into the light, it gives an optimistic and sentimental cliché for the life of future generations.
8. Why did Joel Meyerowitz photograph ground zero in colour?
Because he thought to photograph it B&W would be to keep it as a tragedy and he didn't want that.
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