Split Thoughts

Borrowing on the technical inspiration of my short Split Wash, Split Thoughts has an obvious personal edge. Again, it's light on actual substance but I felt motivated to put together this little short after thinking about all the vlogs I've watched on YouTube and considered what the act of filming yourself meant.

It got me thinking, what if you don't know what to say or how to say it? Is it simply a self portrait? Is it just a way to command attention? It's a bit of all of this I think. As simple as it is I find there's something reflective and haunting about this short. What is a filmmaker/editor anyway if not indulgent and gratuitously searching for artistic gratification? We're all entitled to our moments I suppose.

Siblings Remix

An energetic remix cut from my original Siblings video. I always find it entertaining to see what else I can create with the same footage. The original Siblings can be seen here.

Split Wash: Buick Park Avenue

I washed my car!

Okay, I know it's not that exciting but happening to have my little MiniDV cam with me I decided to record it. I think I'm getting more into the habit of looking at daily life as a potential short film or exercise. I don't mean this as an epiphany either, I mean I've always looked at things that way, but lately I've been thinking why not just make more video exercises for myself? Enough with assuming I have to plan all my ideas. Why not just film more, edit more, produce more, and then have a history of footage to play with? What's wrong with collecting video clips?

It's tough to be heard and seen, and it's a struggle when what you want to do relies so much on that, but I figure if I'm having fun and it's because I'm creating, there's no harm in documenting as much as possible. What I do with it is still up in the air.

So, I washed my car, filmed it, and put together a split screen short showing the same image cut together at slightly different moments. It's basic, a technical exercise with artistic flare, but it's short and now posted below.

Space Drama! (2008)

Last Christmas, as part of a gag gift, I received a cheesy sci-fi flick from the 1950's. It was one of those movies that you find on an end cap at Walmart for 1.99. It doesn't even come with a case, just a cardboard sleeve, but I remember when I opened it I said 'Maybe someday I'll make a found footage film with this'.

So in the mood to edit last night, I captured the DVD directly from the DVD player onto my camera, which is a nice feature considering your mainstream DVD would be copy-protected. I put the footage on my computer and I started playing.

Before I knew it 5 hours had passed and by re-organizing the footage, recording some narration, and adding some sound effects, I had come up with something original from something found. An edit that was actually pretty fun to boot!

The last found footage film I made, The Other Time Machine, was for an experimental film class in 2006. Just like when I made that one, I found this edit to be so much fun because I was creating my own story and concept while using footage that I wouldn't be able to shoot myself. Space Drama! as I call this one, is a spin on the TV movie trailers and recaps from the 50's where the narrator talks you through the plot. I think it turned out fairly well, and to let you in on how much I changed things, the people I made bad guys were actually good guys, the real bad guys don't appear in my version, I faked the relationships, and didn't get into the real conflict of two planets at odds with each other, and their impending destruction because of a rogue queen.

Yeah, it's some crazy stuff! I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that because I had so much fun this time, that I'll probably go find some 'new' old movies and shows to edit into some more quirky videos. Now ladies and gentlemen, enjoy some Space Drama!

 

Here's the actual film called Crash of Moons (1954).

5 Things I've Never Done

I was tagged through my YouTube channel to say 5 random things that I've never done, and then respond with 1 thing that I have done that the person who tagged me said they hadn't. There's obviously a lot more than 5 things that I haven't done, but this was my response.

A Day at the Sask Science Centre

A few weekends ago I had the opportunity to go to the Saskatchewan Science Centre, a place I hadn't been since February of 2002. It seems crazy that so much time has passed, but I remember it specifically because it was when I first came to Regina to check out the university. What a crazy ride it's been since then. In any case, I took my video camera along this time to capture the afternoon I spent there with Tyler. Our friend Daya gave us a private tour and here's what I came up with. Updated post here.