April Favorites

April was a dull month punctured with brief moments of intense dread, anxiety, stress dreaming, and a general sense of uneasiness. I didn't have time to cultivate many pop culture obsessions, and for that, I am truly sorry.

Mommy

On a brighter note, I finally saw Mommy by Xavier Dolan!! And it was EXACTLY AS AMAZING as everyone had said it would be!!!!!! I actually watched it with my brother and my dad (17m, 60m) and they both loved it as well, so I'm certain it appeals to a broad demographic of humanity. It made me feel so many different and powerful emotions, most salient among them the appreciation for life. The joie de vivre. (Ugh, I know, I need to stop.)

If you are like me and have been scouring the Internet for an English-subbed version but have not yet found one, feel free to PM me on any one of my various social media sites and I can forward you a link.

I didn't get a chance to do any screenshots, but here's the lovely, beautiful, cinematographically-impeccable trailer:

Ingmar Bergman

I purchased a Hulu Plus account several months ago and only really watched a few things before I let it fall to the wayside (you know, how school gets in the way of life, man). But on weekends, when I hang out with my boyfriend who also loves pretentious films, we watch a lot of Ingmar Bergman.

For my most dedicated followers (I'm sure there are many of you), you may remember my having seen Fanny and Alexander over Christmas Break. Since, I've seen Wild Strawberries and Through A Glass Darkly. It's typically harder for me to pay attention to film and TV that's filmed in black-and-white, because I'm such a spoiled Gen Xer, but all his shots seem so carefully considered and all his characters are so interesting and realistic that I never get bored. I still think Fanny and Alexander is my favorite, but both Wild Strawberries and Through A Glass Darkly moved me.

Orange is the New Black

I'm always late to the party with TV shows. I finished the first season in a few days and I've been playing it while animating stuff. It's fun and wacky and reminds me of a funnier Lost, what with its diverse cast of characters and pre-prison flashbacks. Apparently my dad and my brother have also watched it and enjoyed it, long before I ever decided to delve into it. Sigh.

Miscellany

I did get a chance to see a few films  at the Minneapolis Film Festival. One was Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter and the other was Black Coal, Thin Ice. Both were breathtaking in terms of cinematography, and both certainly matched my April mood of intense dread/anxiety/stress/dreamness/unease. I certainly recommend them. I also had the chance to interview a filmmaker from my school who makes amazing experimental documentaries and who also showed a film at MSPIFF.


The Voyage of the Soul- Not Life Alone. from Marie Ketring on Vimeo.

I've only got this Public Domain Review article that examines the development and philosophical/psychological implications of the color black in paintings throughout history. I used it as inspiration for a series of drawings I did about the universe that I have not yet photographed, but rest assured I will get around to that in about two weeks when I have to clean and move out of my apartment.

I've also started cultivating a repository of images that will inspire future color palettes in my work. I'm very much concerned/nearly obsessed with color. I gather these images mostly via Tumblr and Cargo Collective, and I DON'T have any sources, though if any readers are interested I am sure you are more than able to perform a reverse Google image search. So, I guess, with that, here's some eye candy in this eclectic and aimless blog post:

Learning to Love You More x2

So, in one of my classes, we were tasked to film a 3-minute documentary (without music) that followed one of the prompts on the Learning to Love You More website.

I was struggling to get this completed on time, since I was literally in Colorado over Spring Break, so I decided, at the last minute, to film a sort of experimental documentary based on prompt 43: "MAke an exhibition of the art in your parent's house." The first iteration, set to the tune of "Sometimes You Gotta Make It Alone" by Money Mark, can be found here and not embedded at low res.

Unfortunately, I fucked up. This was only a minute and a half long, and it was set completely to the tune of music. It was essentially a music video. My teacher, kind as she is, allowed me to make another, which I think actually turned out better than the first (even though I tried way less hard on this one than the first one). This was based on prompt 33: Braid someone's hair.


Living Space from Marcie LaCerte on Vimeo.

It was pretty hard to color correct since it was all filmed indoors at night at a high ISO, and everything turned out kind of too pink, but whatever. I almost like how unrealistic and soft and pink it is. I tried somewhat hard with the cinematography, sort of, kind of, though I was told that it looks mostly like a "home video," so I guess I failed in that respect.

I really enjoyed the editing process of trying to create an intimate documentary portrait of someone, and I'm doing something like this for my final project for the class. So stay tuned for THAT, because that's gonna be fun.

CE Figure Drawing Dump

I took a Continuing Education figure drawing class for one credit this semester, and it was really awesome and easy and helped me understand the figure a lot. Some figures are better than others, and I certainly have a long ways to go before I feel entirely confident about figure drawing, but I feel armed and powerful with knowledge that I didn't have prior to this class.

Also, here is a terrible photo of an unfinished painting I did in my drawing class:

I am sorry the frame is wobbly and her face is messed up and her legs look flat. I am sorry. I am sorry.

I went to Colorado over Spring Break

My brother and I visited my dad in Colorado over our spring breaks, and we basically did nothing since my dad was at work every day. We did go hiking twice, however, and I felt the sun on my legs for the first time in months. I also purchased a pair of fun and sexy! new balance sneaks, so that was cool and good for my feet.

My pictures from it are kind of boring, but I love long hikes, and the grandiosity of nature is both inspirational and overwhelming to a short, anxious person like me. (Warning: Photoset contains DSLR flower photograph. Proceed with caution.)

My brother is awkward.

Animation moodboard and preliminary scraps for "Anxiety Dream"

We're nearing the end of second semester (I can't believe it!), and we've just been assigned our final project in my Intro to Animation class.

Here's the moodboard I put together for it (images were compiled from all over tumblr and cargocollective):

I don't know why the colors appear so much duller when uploaded to this website or even to tumblr. It's a little disappointing.

With regards to my film, which will either be titled Anxiety Dream or Dream Anxiety or Stress Dream or a combination of the three or something entirely unrelated (I haven't yet decided),  I am interested in synesthetically capturing the anxiety and ephemerality and abstraction of anxiety dreams.

I've been having a lot of them this year—actually, I can't remember the last time I had a dream that wasn't dysfunctional.  I wonder why that is; I don't feel like I've been particularly mentally unstable this year. Maybe it's because of my fucked up sleep schedule (i.e. my nocturnal lifestyle).

The first half of the film (about 30 seconds or so) will be her waking up, late to class, and partaking in the daily morning ritual that so many of us rely on to establish a sense of self and maintain sanity. I think it's a known fact of humanity that without routines, our selves and our society would fall into disarray. The beginning half of the film will be done in pretty normal character animation. Halfway through, she'll be running to class and fall into a hole in the ground, and the anxiety dream sequence will begin in her midair descent through this bottomless pit. I'll use, like, markers and crayons and maybe even paint. Who knows?

The character herself looks pretty young and pretty average, and the environment she lives in looks like a normal apartment or dorm. There will be a very strict color palette in the first half—somewhat limited, though vibrant. Biomorphic abstractions will accompany her in the latter half, during the experimental part.

It's all very vague. I showed my animatic to my class on Friday and it was more or less a disaster; nobody could tell what it was about and everyone seemed....doubtful? I don't know how to describe it. It was like when I gave my presentation on Al Jarnow and I was so excited and prepared to talk and then the response was just a letdown. I don't know, man.

Here are some visual scraps/concept art stuff I've made in an attempt to familiarize myself more with the character and her personality/setting:

I've got about 5 more weeks to finish this. I feel a little fucked.