Anyone here go to the FPS event in Brooklyn last night?
 

Just wondering if anyone here went to the FPS fest in Brooklyn last night? FPS Fest - film.photo.synthesis

The concept was how there is this convergence in the film/photo world. The line up of work viewed was:

KT Auleta
Philip Bloom
Alex Buono
Amber Gray
Alexx Henry
Andrew Hetherington
Tim Hetherington
Vincent Laforet
Shinichi Maruyama
Candace Meyer
Richard Patterson
Louis Psihoyos
F Scott Schafer
Bob Scott
Noah Webb

What I got out of this is wow we have a long ways to still go as photographers turned indie filmmakers to get any sort of real work out there except eyecandy and cliches from a powerful tool. Don't get me wrong, there was some powerful stuff in this lineup (mostly the doc work by Tim Hetherington and behind the scenes stuff of Louis Psihoyos, "The Cove"). But on the non-tech exploring narratives there seemed to be nothing more then pretty models/girls(and I don't mean women here) in front of camera walking, taking their clothes off or dancing around. The filmmaker actually thinking this as narrative. This isn't a story, it's a pretty girl dancing around. Now I like pretty girls, I like pretty girls dancing around. Just tell/show me why this is happening. Give me a story either visual or abstract, doesn't matter.

I think the biggest "thing" that photographers turning filmmakers need to overcome is that it's no longer about you. I think photographers are used to photography being a frozen frame given to the viewer a moment of the relationship between you(the photographer) and your subject. But with film now you must disappear, for the most part, and you must give the viewer a reason to be sitting there looking. It's expected by the viewer in this medium. I'm not talking experimental or video installation/art. Filmmaking is a different beast. Eyecandy is cheap way to get someones attention to keep watching, but it's not storytelling. Anyways it's what kept popping in to my head last night at this event. Of course I'm not talking about the "stamp" a filmmaker put on their vision and film they want to give to the world (like how you know a Woody Allen film is a Woody Allen film). Woody Allen is a good example actually, his films are always about him, but it's not the relationship between him off camera and the person in front of the lens, at least not 100% of the time. This is one thing photographer has to get over and I don't know if ego will allow it for most.


If anyone else went I would love to hear what they thought.

I'll tell you some stuff that consistently blows me away on the multimedia, short piece front... The things coming out of Media Storm. They are telling stories no doubt, and helping teach people how to be effective at it. Wow.