The Molotov Man and Crytomnesia

After reading the article “On The Rights Of The Molotov Man” in which a painter, Joy Garnett, uses a part of a documentary photographer, Susan Meiselas, photo. A copy right debate is raised between who has the right to use this photo of a man in mid throw of a Molotov. After reading both viewpoints my quick and very right response is that Susan is looking too deeply into her own art and tacking on too much responsibility. I biased this on the fact that there is big difference between a filmmaker and a photographer, which is a filmmaker “makes” an image while a photographer “takes” an image. All Susan did was be in the right place and the right time to push the button on her camera and “take” the photo. That it, that’s all she did. This photo she took is not “her” art, it’s her artistic eye to see when, where and what makes a good photo but as soon as one of the elements in the photo is changed from the original print then its beyond her artistic eye and into the next artist’s view. The artistic ability to “take” a photo is way different then what a filmmaker has to do to “make” that same image. If Susan was a filmmaker and she did “make” that image then she is entitled to licensing fees and control of the use of her art. In the end the question still stands, “who owns the right to this man’s struggle?” My answer, nether one of them, but Susan is the one complaining and demanding money from Joy. Hence, she is in the wrong, not Joy?

I never knew that Crytomnesia meant the phenomenon when two different people came up with the same concept without ever meeting or being exposed to each others work. I bring this up because as my group were brain storming for a concept to shoot for our long take I came up with this idea of lost tourist who stops at a bust to for directions and watches as a native jumps on the back of another person and rides off. One of our group members, who is from Australia, weren’t there when I originally thought of this idea but later after I described it to her she said that she had seen the exact same thing back home in Australia. So it stuck out to me that that there really is a word that means this exact phenomenon.

Saturday In-class Shoot

So Saturday’s shoot was some what chaotic but still manageable and fun considering that my group started off with not having picked a concept to shoot. We did throw a few ideas around before hand that we picked from and refined. Of course, location always provides it own set of problems, like I would have to shoot from standing in the middle of the road. Once we got to where we were going to shoot it I quickly found that that I would play the part of the director, I don’t really like directing, it’s too hard to manage and there are too many options for me to handle. Today gave me a different approach to it, directing didn’t seem that hard and all it required was controlling a several run through and holding the camera steady. The hold the camera steady part, not as easy as it sounds, there is really no hand grips on the thing and after holding it one way for the run through I found out that I had to completely change I was to hold it for the actual shoot. This explains why the camera was tilted during the take. I was very happy with the end result, beside the minor tilt of course.
Working with the super 8mm camera became very mechanical, unlike digital cameras where everything is seamless and integrated. The super 8mm camera was very much like tinkering with an old clock with you having to take an active role in doing everything to get the camera to function properly. So you have to know how the camera works to get it to work, with digital plug it in, turn it one and that’s it, its good to go.
I had a lot of fun working on the other group’s shoot. But then who wouldn’t have fun doing an office chair race down the halls and through the Kean hall building?! Considering how dirty of a racer I was and how hard I was pushing it Im lucky I didn’t wipe out, then again that would have only added to the thrill of the shoot. My only regret was only able to do the race twice, I really think they should have done a few more run through. Anyways, overall Saturday’s shoot was very fun and that it felt less of hassle to go to class on a Saturday then I thought it would.

48 hr Video Race

So last week before spring I was told in class that in a few weeks I will have to do a 48 hour video race and that I couldn’t use regular film or video cameras. This leaves regular consumer picture cameras, flat bed scanners and cell phone cameras etc. The examples showed in class were a lot of examples of stop motion animation, either with toys and household items or with paints and other art supplies. So Im thinking I should do a stop motion film because I have a 10 megapixel consumer camera and my own umbrella light kit. If I do a stop motion film ill shoot on two’s, which means that if there is 24 frames in a second and 60 seconds in a min then that’s 24 times 60 which is 1440 frames, divide by two is 720. So my film needs to be 720 frames long. That sounds like a lot and if im thinking that now then one of two things is going to happen when I shoot it. Either im going to get half way through my 720 frames and only a fourth of the way through my story outline or Im going to finish shooting my story and have a hundred plus frames to go. I would like to make this film a narrative, im not big on experimental plots and I think it would make it better plan out if I was telling a story verse just making an interesting moving picture. Keeping this in mind I remember seeing a film I saw a few years back where this kid made a stop motion film to this song that I can’t remember the name of it but the choirs goes like this “I will walk five-hundred miles and will walk five hundred more…”. In his video it was a side view drawing of a guy walking down a road, and then doing whatever the song was singing about. I really liked this video so for starters I should listen to my music library and see if anything sparks my imagination. Once I have my basic plot and story down I will storyboard it, which I never enjoy doing but im immensely appreciatively to have it once its done. It would be nice to know by storyboarding just a rough estimate of frames each shoot will take, I guess I don’t have the experience to do that just yet.