some more blue vinyl

plaintiff and defendant

chapter four of the text discusses an analogy involving documentary viewed as a courtroom setting. the documentary filmmaker is the judge, plaintiff, and defendant. it covers these topics in a couple different topics: plaintiff and defendant, credibility, witnesses, cross examination, order and selection in presenting evidence, and summing up. this analogy applies in the case of Blue Vinyl a documentary by judith hefland. the filmmaker has a weird feeling when her parents take down the wood siding on the family home and decide to replace it with blue vinyl simulated wood grain siding. her parents decide on the siding because of the look and cost, judith senses there is treachery afoot. she identifies the plaintiff initially as herself and her parents, the defendant turns out to be the vinyl corporations, in america in particular is lake charles louisiana and even vinyl business as far off as venice italy. she finds greenpeace witnesses, lawyers for victims of vinyl, the victims themselves, and reputable scientists for her witnesses on the side of the plaintiff and the vinyl public relations people as the witnesses of the defendant. their credibility is established somewhat in the identification of their positions and job titles and educational history in some cases. judith is the lawyer for both sides in that she cross examines every person to get to the bottom of what turns out to be an ugly tale. she then turns around and uses this evidence and facts and hearsay and presents it to the jury which is the audience. she uses this evidence to show the argument for both sides. Blue Vinyl is a reflexive documentary maybe self reflexive in that it inserts the filmmaker herself into this story of a product that most people dont think any thing about, i have a friend whose kids were taken away with his estranged girlfriend who happens to be from lake charles louisiana. after surviving hurricane katrina in biloxi mississippi, it turns out to be a double edged knife when i found out that she took them to live in what appears to be one of the most dangerous places to live (and especially raise kids) in america. once again to be able to find such a small topic like seemingly harmless vinyl (which everyone, including me, has on their house is a real shock and i look forward to its conclusion to find out how miss hefland sums up her case before the jury (me).

here is the link to view this topic

http://www.bluevinyl.org/

some of the ideas that are rummaging around these days are bigger later projects. for this class i really want to focus on some local myths of the north carolina (devil's stomping ground, the crazy reflector man, the night lantern) and actually experience these things by actually doing them overnight with my crew. ghosts abound! what will separate this film from the usual travel fare is the experimental twist/angle i want to include. i have come in possession of my own super 8 equipment, which i wish to use to rephotograph video and reproject this as film ala stan "the man" brakhage. there is some research to be done, legends are fun and i hope to find a group who is on board with me to do this. i have experienced the crazy reflector man personally and it scared the shit out of me. the night lantern and devil's stomping ground is sworn by many to be true. i havent met anybody yet that is brave enough to try it. this is the best time of the year to be up all night filming. that is the idea i am most behind. three stories should fit nicely in 10-15 min and they are fairly local in that they should only be fairly small distances away. perfect case scenario would be to have 3-4 day weekend, camping to do primary filming. totally exciting! leave messages and posts about first reactions. dont want to do this alone after done with film school, kinda scared. just kidding.


check out these links
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnVbTH0QU3s

http://greensboring.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=993

http://www.ratrun.com/north_carolina.htm

http://www.americanfolklore.net/folktales/nc2.html

http://www.prairieghosts.com/brownmt.html

The author of the article, "the film as an orginal art form", hans richter begins by stating that the film camera was originally created for reproduction. This reproduction was used to capture real motion and sound (later). Color was also added later to bring the five senses of humans full circle. The technology and means used, especially nowadays, can truly recreate life itself. The debate that richter has is with what film evolved into and became dominated by is the industry of hollywood and its focus of making money really left the artist behind. Nowadays even more than when this article was written has reproduction become the norm of classic hollywood filmmaking. The stories have even reached an end to the fact that even original film are being remade which is even worse than the original reproduction. The original reproduction (modern hollywood narrative) is imitated art in that hollywood took existing stories, books, literature, plays, and etc. to reproduce art for the eyes and ears of the masses. These masses today more than ever have no time for original art, i mean, why read the book when the movie will eventually come out if the book was successful enough. The latest era of hollywood nonevolution is remaking tv stories and advertisements and feeding this through its meat grinder to leave an unappetizing entree of dead lifeless nonart. There is hope however, many independents still stand behind the teeth of this article in that they take the camera lens and turns it back upon life itself in the form of documentary and experimental film. The documentary has evolved quite a bit since the early days of Primary and HIgh School, Errol Morris, Su Friedrich, and even Spike Lee has the truth to tell, because that is what should be at the skeletal core of documentary is truth. Now there will always be agenda in film and especially television. But these days the news media can no longer be trusted and it is up to a bold few to hold the torch up to the face of the monster and reveal its true fangs and features. Documentary film can reveal so much truth, and honesty is such an important of real important art. Experimental film is what film should recreationally be. It is true expression and idea and cannot be reproduced as easily as a novel or a magazine article. Experimental film feeds on original ideas and reveals the grit and merit of an artists soul. There are no test audiences here to say, "you know what would make this better?" There is still criticism, there is always criticism, but comes at the end of the creative process by intellectuals who take the time to try to identify with it. Their feedback does not kill the art, their feedback discusses the art, and the key word of that discussion is art itself. It is art. No producer will make you change the ending of your experimental film to satisfy an age category or market for example. You are the producer, You are the Art, and the Art is all of us.

shakin' and bakin'

here it is... the first post of what may prove to be one of the best blogs ever. cause who knows? stranger things have happened but anyway, greetings and welcome to my latest and greatest blog page.

the artful documentor