Scott's ITP Weblogs

Tim, Greg and Scott’s Five-Minute Opus:

Life from a Cellular View

The conceit here is that the viewer will see what a lost cellular phone would see. From the moment it falls to the street, discovered by someone and carried to a place where it becomes a voyeur “listening in” on the lives and details of the people who found it. The POV is entirely from the phone. When someone talks on the phone, we see a close up of their ear. When the phone is dropped, we see the jarring of the camera frame.

Scene 1: The Street

VIDEO:
Phone falls, tumbles on the ground, bam! The sound of the drop is masked by a car horn (so the owner doesn’t hear it and the viewers are not quite sure what it is yet. Sidewalk traffic swirls past. We see a snails eye view of people walking above.

A dog come up and sniff’s it. The owner doesn’t realize. It tries to pick it up in its mouth and is pulled away.

A hand swoops down, picks up the phone. We see only a part of the face (Scott’s) from the phone’s POV. Since the phone can’t shift its gaze, we see Scott examining it, turning it from side to side and eventually shoving it into a pocket. Ambient sounds become muffled. Video becomes total darkness. (This wipe is our scene transition).

Scene 2: Au Bon Pan

VIDEO: Scott pulls the phone out, the ambient sound becomes that of a coffee shop. As Scott pulls the phone from his pocket, we see Scott’s entire face in the shot for the first time.

AUDIO: Scott:
How ‘bout this? This would be cool, right?
VIDEO: He passes it to Greg.

AUDIO: Greg: Yeah, maybe… (he considers it) I think we should consider something else, too, like…
VIDEO: Greg examines phone quickly and dismisses it. We see his face briefly.

AUDIO: Tim: You know, I don’t think we need to go by a script…
VIDEO: Greg passes phone to Tim. We see his face as he examines the phone and begins to fiddle with it in his hands. The POV is now a rolling view of the whole scene.

AUDIO: Tim: Couldn’t we just pass this thing around and talk about it... use the footage to create some kind of narrative after the fact?

SFX: second phone rings off side.
AUDIO: Scott: I have to take this. It’s my sister. Sorry.
(He begins conversation, it fades as he walks off.)

AUDIO: Greg: Looks like we’ve lost him. Hey, I was supposed to meet someone at school right now. I’ll be back. He won’t mind…
VIDEO: We see Tim’s face bum out that his friends have left. Tim places phone sideways on table so we see only part of his torso and laptop in the shot.

AUDIO: Tim: Okay. I’ll just chill here for a while.
VIDEO: Tim types a few things on his laptop. Shot drags out a little longer than expected. Music in the background. He looks at his watch, decides to leave, flips the laptop shut and goes to pick up the phone. Suddenly the phone rings. He stares at the number for a second and picks up. Close Up of Tim’s ear.

AUDIO: Tim: Hello?
SFX: “Charlie Brown’s teacher” type voice on phone.
AUDIO: Tim: Uh… yeah, yeah. Mmm… it was around Broadway and Waverly…. Sure… I’ll meet you there in about 5 minutes?

VIDEO: Tim pulls phone away from his ear and stares at it with a wry smile. He drops phone into his shirt pocket and walks out the door, down the street, meets her.

Scene 3: The corner

AUDIO VO: Tim: Hey, are you…?
AUDIO VO: Woman: Yes.

VIDEO: He pulls out the phone and hands it to her. We see her face as she examines it quickly and puts it in her purse. (Maybe she clips the phone on her belt, so that it doesn’t have to be shoved in a bag).

AUDIO: Woman: Listen, thank you so much.
VIDEO: The view turns dark.

AUDIO VO: Tim: How about a reward? Maybe a cup of coffee with me?
AUDIO VO: Woman: (A pause) Thanks again. I gotta go.

SFX: Heeled shoes walking away.
AUDIO VO: Tim: (in the distance) Hey wait… hey… call me!

Posted by itp at 03:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On a cold Saturday afternoon, I went to visit Moving Pictures: American Art and Early Film, 1880–1910 at the Grey Art Gallery. The idea of the exhibition was simple at its face value. I came to the realization that the it was also a study in the gradual application of a new medium to progressively complex subjects and themes and the corresponding human appreciation of that medium from its beginning as a novelty to a more respected art form.

Each pairing of 2D works and corresponding moving image reel established the parallel approach artists of the day used to engage viewers. Artists (or studios) created moving image work that enhanced what the audience already was appreciating in 2D work of the day. Example: Remington studied motion pictures to get a better feel for the true movement of a horse. For the first time, untrained viewer could see movement as it happened rather than how an artist imagined it happened from memory.

At first, the experimentation with moving pictures was treated as pretty much a scientific endeavor. The subjects were studies of human and animal movement and skeletal behavior. It was fascinating, but serious business. Later, the camera was turned toward its subject to create “moving paintings” with the camera locked off and the subject studied as if in a cage at the zoo. Very little attention was paid to the context of the footage created. It was a dynamic medium being used to enhance an essentially static aesthetic. Environment was next. Panoramic scenes of the day captured movement with wide-eyed wonder. Downstairs brought my attention to the transition of the medium from a toy to a tool. .

The pairing that illustrated this for me best was the painting of “Holy Grail” at the Boston Public Library and the short film of the theatrical work “Parsifal Ascends the Throne.” Both have serious, historical subject matter and both approach the task with seriousness of presentation. The film is as much a work of art as the painting. The whole show on the lower level seemed to take the turn from novelty and craft to more narrative presentation. The last footage, presented as projection on the wall, even had comic entertainment value.

Overall, I felt the show succeeded in taking me along the curator’s journey from filmic archaeology through early cinema. It provided me with a stoic presentation of the early stages of one of the world’s strongest cultural influences.

Posted by itp at 06:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)