Hi everyone,
I've been trying to figure out how to share some videos I'm working on with you, and the best way to do it seems to be through vimeo. Not ideal, but ok. The videos are private and the password to view all of them is watchfreja.
Below are the links to the videos. The first two links are for clips of a longer piece called Couple on Beach. (Vimeo only lets me upload a certain amount of video per week). The second video is really a slideshow that I am thinking about as a projection. I know this is a lot to watch, so thank you for taking the time.
Couple on the Beach
http://vimeo.com/54425380
Couple on the Beach Part 2
http://vimeo.com/56381383
Mary's New Apartment
http://vimeo.com/56432053
Both pieces are sketchy
attempts to continue the video work I was doing at UNM where I would
interview people and then film them listening to the recordings. I am
interested in working with the interview recordings now instead of
having the work be silent. I'm in the process of trying to make another
video with a different couple, because I think the relationship adds an
interesting layer to that work.
Mary's New Apartment is
a weird piece that I'm not at all sure of. I interviewed Mary in
Albuquerque, and instead of payment for her participation, she convinced
me to photograph the apartment she was about to move into. She wanted
pictures of the place empty. She composed every picture with me,
methodically opening and closing doors, adjusting the blinds, and
checking the composition in the camera viewfinder. In the end, the
video I made of her didn't work, and I never showed it. Her interview
was more interesting than her video, and I recently went back to it to
see if I could rework it into a new piece.
I'd love any general feedback you feel like sharing. I feel very inside this work in such a weird way and I have absolutely no idea if it's even interesting to anyone else, or if anyone else hears of or sees what I am seeing.
Hey Freja, it's great to see your new work.
ReplyDeleteFor the beach couple. I really like looking at the framing of the shot and listening to the background noise. I think these people look tough, and they really make themselves vulnerable which is cool (especially when the girl admits that she is constantly scared). Part of me thinks you should take something out of this video, like maybe it's too descriptive as is. But I'm not sure what that would be. My first thought was to take your voice out. I think your voice might show too much of your intent with the interview. But I really like hearing both of their stories in this video. (Would love to see the full version.) Sometimes I really wish I could see the guy's face! But that is hard to control.
The piece made me think also of guns, punk, and Reagan's policies, but that is because I have a one track mind.
The thing is, listening to your voice, I almost wonder if without knowledge of the questions you were asking, if I would get more out of the video. It introduces a 3d personality. I found myself wondering what would happen if you acted like a total dick. But I think it was really cool to have someone just listen to these people as art - to make that connection - even if it was just for the video.
OK, I rambled so much that I thought I would respond in 2 pieces.
ReplyDeleteFor the second video. I'm amazed that you could sit with this incredibly irritating person for so long. Maybe it's just me but... the mysogyny of this woman! the taking credit for her kid's decisions! it's like she has no concept of her kid having a mind of her own. I found myself going to very mean places such as "no wonder this person got divorced." But I am not very patient these days.
I think this video is interesting, but maybe requires too much patience on the part of the audience. I like the apartment pictures a lot actually - they aren't particularly carefully composed or lit, and the apartment is EXTREMELY nondescript -- once I saw the mountain, I immediately made the connection to the cardboard construction and perfect right angles in the SW that was so prevalent. (at first I was thinking you were in NYC and then was more impressed by her moving into her own apartment.) Cameron and Ivan both lived in places like that - as well as me in my first year, I guess. Anyway, I get no sense of her personality except from the audio which is a nice touch. I think you only need one photo per shot rather than putting in the different shots of the same scene because that is too much about photographing and only one photo would be less distracting. I wonder if this is an audio piece rather than video, her interview is very strong. But i also like seeing the apartment.
I'm not sure my responses are helpful. I don't think these works are finished - I respond more to the beach work, but I really enjoyed watching both.
Freja,
ReplyDeleteOut of the two pieces from Couple on the Beach, I think the first piece is much stronger...although if they are both segments of a longer piece, is your goal different for a longer piece than what you've shown us here? Anyway, I think the first clip is stronger because it includes both of their voices. I also find the subject matter they are discussing more interesting than the guy talking about his experience in rehab.
It is a very pleasing shot aesthetically and the beach seems like a fitting place to photograph a couple for a variety of reasons.
The audio in all three pieces could use some work - I agree with Carolyn that you should edit your voice out. It disrupts the flow of the monologue and the one-to-one or two-to-two image/voice relationship you've set up. The end of the first video drops off in a weird way, maybe it needs less of a fade or a few seconds of silence at the end? They react a lot to their own voices in the first 30 seconds of the clip out loud and then don't for the remainder of the clip...because of this, I forget that they are listening to their own voices. If this really important to the work, is there a way to remind me that they are listening to recordings of themselves? Are they still doing this in Couple video #2?
I think the third piece can be edited down significantly...maybe pick one of the several topics she discusses to concentrate on and focus on that? I guess one problem I have with Mary's analysis of the topics you ask her about is her tendency to discuss things in one-line clichés true to motivational speaker form. What would happen if you took the audio from one of the couple scenes and applied it to the empty apartment images? I could see interesting metaphors coming out of different parings of audio and visuals in these three works. Perhaps it would be fun to free yourself of one person or couple's audio going with the same video you shot of them?
Sorry about the delayed response.
ReplyDeleteI'll start with Mary's New Apartment -
When I listen to Mary talk, I think about the days of me taking the time to sit with homeless people, or strange men in bars - just listening to them ramble. There is always SO much to learn from a person if you just give them the time to talk - but then these types of people (homeless man, man in bar, etc) were the types of people that NOBODY in his/her right mind would really want to sit around, giving minutes/hours of their life to listening. Because they ramble. And at some point in my life, I realized that I was arbitrary in the situation - they just needed to talk. I also realized that they probably wanted just to bang me and that's super gross. :)
And so I think about these memories of my own when I listen to Mary talk. She could go on for a very long time - in fact the way the sound cuts at the end, it is as though the conversation was cut - and she kept going. So there is a little struggle with this I think - because in some ways it is easy to get a little lost with what she is saying. I like that we don't see her, but maybe some of that animation is lost. The piece functions almost banally - these very plain views of an empty apartment, and this woman talking about her life - rambling with words of advice and depth, but almost hollow - and perhaps the hollowness would come from the duration of the piece (which may need to be longer to have it stand out more prominently?). Obviously she is saying interesting things about her experiences - and I like her advice and opinions about men - but it is advice that almost goes in one ear and out the other (for me), because people have to live it to understand it. She also never goes very deep into major troubles or trauma's she's had. I hear her talking to you - almost helping you figure out your path in life.
The main thing that interests me in this work is the emptiness of the space, and the fullness of her words. Also her personality seems so very bright, that I would imagine her place to look like Lynn Johnson's (remember that crazy house) - not plain, blank walls. But it's new, and I get that. Still- the contrast is there.
In knowing you, I can't help but consider that your interest in Mary also comes from your relationship with you Grandma, or Mother -women who (somehow) remind me of Mary. I don't know about your Mom (except that I imagine she shares some of the feminist insights that Mary has) but I know your Grandma would talk a lot - have a lot to say, while (I imagine) sitting in the same chair, rocking back and forth. Does that make sense?
I wonder a lot about your decision to insert yourself in both pieces. I personally feel a little conflicted by it - it is jarring as a the viewer to hear you - it's a consciousness that there is someone else directing these answers - when the work feels very honest to the people depicted. I'd work through that and decide if you really need to be in there, and if so why.
ReplyDeleteOne main comment on camera work:
The couple on the beach looks beautiful. I wouldn't critique a thing. In Mary's apartment I am distracted by the lens distortion. I don't know if these are stills or video shots, but I'd do what you can to try and lens correct the lines in the shots. Having the walls bowing is weird. I don't know if you can do that easily, but I'd check out what you can do to correct some of it. I'd also consider making almost all the shots a bit warmer - some look a little greenish/blue. I'd consider showing the space as empty, but also warm and inviting.
The Couple on the Beach is really quite interesting. I don't have as much to say about it, because I think it is pretty solid and I think you should do more in a very similar way. Themes about relationships (in both pieces) stand out - how do two different people together have two very different pasts - how do couples make that work? The punk couple seem very new together. The girl insecure about their relationship and his past relationship.
I also wonder what format you would like people to view these videos. I don't think VIMEO would be ideal (obviously) but would it be film festivals, or video installation pieces? I wonder about this because I'd consider the duration of the pieces. Personally I'd like to walk into Mary talking about her space for a while, come back, and listen to her still talking....but maybe that isn't what you imagine.
OK, I hope this is helpful. TZ