ARE YOU THERE

So I've finished the video for the Amplify Me film fest

I think

Still a few days to mull it over, feedback appreciated

Are You There

LOVE WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER ... OR NOT

So I've collected most of the footage I think I need for "Where Are You" the little video I'm making for the Amplify Me film festival in July.

Many shots of people downtown using their cell phones and some close ups along with some voice overs with the help of some of Collette's friends. So time for the offline, or rough cut

My plan from the beginning was not to use any music for the soundtrack. Partially this is because I don't have any rights to commercial music but also because I wanted to see if I could build a soundtrack without music.

I began editing my shots into the timeline and adding my audio. Some of it was "wild" or ambient audio, the street sounds that accompanied each shot. A lot of it was sound effects, many of them downloaded for free from websites that give you permission for use. Phone rings, phone hang ups, typewriting, that sort of thing.

Final Cut Pro gives you the ability to use multiple audio tracks, up to one hundred, though I could never imagine using that many. So I began layering in the audio, "bedding" the wild audio under the shots, matching SFX with other clips then adding the voice overs. I edited the VOs as if they were a music track, making the phrases almost nonesensical.

I like the effect but I kept watching the video and something was still missing, The video is coming out around 2 minutes and 45 seconds. That's a lot. Most TV commercials are 30 seconds and think how much "information" is contained therein. The averages song for a music video is around the 3 minute mark. Although I liked my soundtrack and it was conveying my message it felt a little clinical to me. Yes, here is the message but I want more than message. Andy video I make, I want that emotional element and in a video like this, without characters or dialogue, music was the obvious way to inspire emotion.

I still had the problem of needing to use music that I have the rights to. Well, I have that. I play around with Soundtrack Pro and Garage Band sometimes. I take pre recorded loops and instruments and make my own music out of them, music that I obviously have the rights to. So one of those songs got added to the project .. and I think it works

I can easily make videos without dialogue. Perhaps though I can never make one without music.

The best laid plans ...

VOYEUR OR DIRECTOR

It's an interesting question and I don't pretend that it's particularly original.

Just the act of looking through the lens at someone else puts you, theoretically, in the head space of a voyeur. When working with actors, or non actors who are knowingly participating, the voyeurism remains a purely artistic or intellectual exercise.

But what if the people on the other side of the lens are not in the know? Are you still a director or are you a true voyeur.

For the video I'm creating for the Amplify Me film fest, I needed to have clips of people using their social networking devices: Cell phones, laptops, tablets etc. Not a difficult thing to find in Toronto. I swear that most of the people in this city have had some kind of cybernetic surgery to have a cell phone implanted in their ears.

On a beautiful sunny day downtown there I was amidst thousands of people and all of them were communicating, but not with each other. Everyone just drifting through the crowds, almost shoulder to shoulder but barely aware of each others existence, so focussed on their own little world. In contact with the people who they know, out of contact with the rest of the world

Is this communication? Well, that's kind of the point of the video

And to that point, I had to video people who were locked into these little worlds. I have to admit, it felt a little weird. When I was shooting the footage for After, I did not experience this level of discomfort. But in that case, I wasn't looking for close ups, I didn't want faces. In fact I wanted faceless .. as in the faceless crowd.

This was different. I used a long lens, from a distance; I could not hear what the people were saying and they were not aware of my presence or that I was filming them. Now, I'm pretty sure I'm on secure legal ground here. I was shooting in public places; parks, streets, public squares. Always outside. In such situations you can't have expectations of privacy. It's the tune they sing to permit them to film us all with remote controlled security cams. Who are "they"? I don't want to say, they may be watching ...

But legal or not I couldn't help feel a bit uncomfortable. There were moments when I didn't feel I was filming, I felt like I was peeking, or snooping, I felt like a voyeur. I know that in the finished video most of these shots will be distorted, my intent is to make them a bit inhuman, as if rendered so by the isolation their desire to communicate gives them. And after all, it's just shots of people talking on their phone and they are doing it in public ... the fact that they don't seem to be concerned that their private business, their personal conversations, is in the public does not seem to concern them

Perhaps it should. Because they have lost the public sense of being public. And some old dude with a camera may be watching.

See, that sounds creepy doesn't it.

NEW PROJECT: AMPLIFY FILM FESTIVAL

Amplify Me is a non profit organization out of the US involved with discussing and promoting the media arts, as stated on their home page

They're asking for videos that explore the impact of social media for a film festival they are holding in Florida. Deadline for submissions is July 2

I was intrigued by this; their submission brief describes videos concerned with all aspects of social media, from unity to dissonance and this was a minor thread through my video After that I created for the Hello Future film festival

So it's been something I've been thinking about, actually for quite a while now. I watch all these people in my city wandering around with their smart phones and tablettes and laptops and although they seem to be furiously communicating, they barely notice each others existances

The other things that made me want to take this challenge; aside from the theme, there really are no restrictions. They will accept videos in any format, made to any style. After restricted me to length, for instance, the video had to be the exact length of the song. Also, I couldn't import any other other audio or add to the song in any way

This one gives me more freedom and that allows me to tailor the video more to my restrictions; ie no budget, no actors, very little time. I remember reading an interview with Rober Rodriquez about the creation of his first movie, El Mariachi, a film made on an extremely low budget. He said he looked at what he had, props and time and actors etc, then built his story around that, instead of writing a script and scrambling to gather elements that he may not have had access to

I like this theme because it may permit me to make the kind of short film that really interests me; something without acting, without real dialogue, something that tells its story with images and audio

As to the audio, that brings another challenge. When creating these projects for film festivals, you have to have the rights to everything in the movie, including the music. I took on After because Moby actually gave over the rights to his music; that is not the case here. Now, I have Soundtrack Pro and Garageband where I can create my own loops and I also have a nephew who is a musician.

But the more I thought about it, I wondered if I really needed a traditional score. Although I love editing to music, I love using a song to replace a dialogue, I wondered it if I could even take it further: Could I create a video with no music at all, just using ambient audio and sound effects and sound bites as the score

Can I make a movie with no dialogue, no score, no real actors ...

Well, let's find out