combining film and animation: a compendium

In one of my classes this semester (Ideation and Process) we are to create a project on our own that we can't necessarily complete in our other classes, either due to time or material constraints. So that's fun. My aim is to create a video that uses both film and animation techniques (and is not rotoscoped [entirely]). It's sort of an impossible task I've given myself but...I am interested in a challenge? (I say that now but will regret this in, oh, three months come finals and routine seasonal depression.) So, anyway, here's a list of stuff I've found online that sort of serve as inspiration for this vague project that may or may not actually happen:


Oh, the Sugars from Grossbus Animation on Vimeo.


Feeling My Way from Jonathan Hodgson on Vimeo.


Jeudi soir from benoit guillaume on Vimeo.


Lightbox: Grey from Philip Evans on Vimeo.

Plumb from caleb wood on Vimeo.


Fort Morgan (2014) trailer from Alexander Stewart on Vimeo.

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.

Ida (2013)

I like taking screenshots of movies. I love cinematography, and unlike photography, film doesn't really get a chance to feel as aesthetically permanent — that all these careful choices that cinematographers can't ever be fully appreciated, since films go through scenes so quickly. Which is why I like taking screenshots of pretty films.

I saw the film Ida about a month ago, and it was visually stunning — super unique with really cool compositions. I think the black and white, in addition to making the film feel more dated, also helped to enhance the compositional choices and the lighting of everything. It all seemed so dramatic and sculptural, especially with the drapery of their habits.

(Obviously, don't look at these/don't read the captions if you don't want spoilers!!)

The white of the snow was a really beautiful contrast to everything, and it set the mood and the tone and gosh I loved it.

Don't they look kind of insane?

The juxtaposition!! JUXTAPOSITION!!!

I love how at this point in the movie she just becomes another #relatableteen. Like, she likes this boy with messy brown hair because he's nice to her and plays in a band. I guess liking boys in bands is pretty much a timeless trope at this point.

I loved all the bizarre religious rituals in this film. The tenseness of it all. And the stoic camaraderie. Like a sorority...a really boring sorority.

I tried finding out more about this film after I watched it (as I do, monomaniacally, with most films I see), but there really wasn't much to read about. I did find out that they were having a hard time finding a girl to play Ida, but the casting director scouted Agata Trezebuchowska when she was hanging in a cafe. And she wasn't even an actress - she's a college student studying some cool, esoteric, liberal arts subjects in Poland. 

Apparently the director was skeptical because she just looked like an "ordinary hipster," but it all ended up working out brilliantly. I love how natural Ida was - it made the scenes where she got all dolled up for a date, like an average teenager, that much more special. And, of course, she's absolutely stunning.

Fanny and Alexander + A Thousand Photos of Baked Brie

Christmas was a few days ago, and I received exactly what I asked for: a DSLR camera! I'm super, super, super ridiculously excited to take photos with it and shoot videos, and I got the chance to do some cool, casual, super-not-cliche food photography on Christmas!

The day started off with some cupcakes my brother baked and I frosted. Yeah, okay, cupcakes for breakfast. At least there's fruit on top?

Cake mix with chocolate frosting, garnished with a single raspberry

Honestly, presentation is half the battle. The battle of DELICIOUSNESS.

My mom is weirdly really into fake flowers. I think she likes the look of flowers but doesn't like how high-maintenance they are. So we've got a bunch of bouquets of garishly-colored fake plastic flowers, and I had some fun playing around with their colors and textures. They almost look real.

I made baked brie for the first time in my LIFE, and it turned out amazingly. A billion calories worth of pure, moist, heart-aching deliciousness. I took about a thousand photos of it because I was just so goddamn proud.

Blackberry and raspberry compote on a wheel of baked brie

Gotta love those action shots.

My dad made caprese, which was equally delicious. My brother and my dad and I ended up talking about Taylor Swift at dinner and how she's basically the greatest poet of my generation. We played "Blank Space" for my mom who wasn't really that into it.

Mozarella, tomatoes, basil leaves, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar (i.e. a classic)

My brother, who's a Food Network fanatic, took it upon himself to whip up these amazing honey mustard pork chops. They were baked to perfection - not too chewy or hard, and certainly not undercooked.

A little garnish of rosemary can go a long way.

I told them to pose nicely and this is what they came up with.

A plate full of goodness (caprese, baked brie, honey mustard pork chops, and some feta mashed potatoes in the back)

For dessert, I decided to make this weird egg yolk chocolate drink. Chocolate zapatista (not really, though the second word did begin with a z).

It was bizarre and pasty and I don't think we had the right cocoa powder, so I ended up adding a bunch of milk and baking chocolate and cinnamon, and it basically turned out like a really thick, cinnamon-y, grainy fondue thing. Nobody really liked it, but we all ate/drank it anyway. My dad actually finished it within approximately 23 seconds. And as he was sitting there, hungrily staring at our glasses, watching my mom complain about how much cinnamon was in the drink, he literally bit into the cinnamon stick. I guess he didn't realize that cinnamon sticks are mostly useless and taste like tree.

At least it looked pretty...sigh

I recently bought myself Hulu Plus (because obviously Netflix is for dweebz), and one of the first films I watched was Fanny and Alexander. So of course I couldn't help but compare my dining room snapshots to the Christmas dinner scenes in the film - everything was red and glittery and shiny, and of course our family isn't as rife with intergenerational marriage conflicts and complex family dynamics (considering the nuclear is only four people, including myself), and of course we aren't as lavishily rich, but I think my mom, a comparable matriarch, decorated the dining room sort of similarly.

PS How in the fuck does anyone format anything on this website? This is honestly like working with Word 2001.