DVC 5: G.R.E. Feedback
 

Hello everyone. I am in the process of moving right now, so I have sporadic internet access at best. Please ask any questions you may have, and I will try to answer them as soon as humanly possible!

I will post a little bit about myself and the techniques and equipment used on the short film very soon. Thanks.

-Joe

A quiet, reflecting short.

I suppose this "store" being a gallery. The capitals G.R.E. I presume stand for the last letters of the gallery name you can see on the shop window (mirrored). It seems that the man has not much to do - time to watch people passing by, reflecting...

These are clever hints at the theme of this challenge - and the most clever thing is, that the movie reflects main questions of art and recepting art in a gallery. A very intellectual film - I like it!

I liked the visual nature of the film -- creative framing, nice colors and exposure. I couldn't tell if I should have been looking for a deeper meaning or to just accept it as a quiet moment in an art gallery, but I liked the feeling of it. Nicely done.

I admit, I was perplexed at first, what with no readily apparent plot, but now that I see others have taken it as a simple, relaxed moment of meditation, it's much more pleasing.

If I may ask a couple of questions, what's with the guy in the black shirt sneaking around in the background when the main character sits down? I thought it might have been the start of a heist, but he just slid out of frame, disappearing forever. And toward the end of the film, our hero seems to get up, leave his gallery, and walk across the street, only to enter his gallery again; it's as if the building exists on both sides of the block at the same time. Was he supposed to have gone somewhere else first--a deli, for example, to get lunch--and then come back?

I must have missed something. Probably a little to deep for my shallow mind..

Some of your shots were nice. I see you were using a 35mm adapter of some kind, yes? Although, not really any story.

However, I'm from Barrow County Georgia, so like Chris, I didn't get it.
I guess he's reflecting on something, but I have no clue.
Then again, I don't get abstraact art either...

I must explain my "interpretation" - and I might be totally wrong - looking forward to hearing what Joe will say about this ;-)

Things in this movie somehow happen casualy - the way to the gallery, a seeming incidental shot of buildings, the shot in the bathroom, browsing on the net, the visitor behind, the shop vis-à-vis - and all this in relationship to art resp. an art gallery. For me the author comments upon art - perhaps even upon film making...

But what is that comment? Perhaps a message like: Be an artist yourself, experience the city and people near you - reflect on forming your life...

As I said, perhaps I'm totally wrong - I'm a teacher for fine art at a comprehensive school in Germany - so, sometimes I see ghosts ;-)

Hi Joe!

You have some very nice cinematography in here. Lovely rack focus shots and great use of DOF. Beautiful colors and framing made this a visual treat. Well done.

An art piece on art itself...

Sometimes I find myself trying so hard to read meaning into films. What is G.R.E., for example? Could it mean Gallery Reflections Extreme? Or, Gone Reflecting Elsewhere? Who was the seemingly ominous person in the black shirt behind the main character? Was the main character really reflecting on his art or was he simply staring outside, off into the distance - not at all looking at the pieces on the gallery wall? Why am I asking myself all these questions? lol.

Or perhaps- it was simply a slice of life. This man's life. And like Jackson Pollock, the art happens in the process of the paint hitting the canvas.

Please don't take my ramblings too seriously. Just my silly brain.

Moving huh? What a drag! Hope it all goes smoothly for you.

Best wishes~
Bradley

PS: I watched some of you other films too. Beautiful work!

Hi Bradley,

well done answer ;-)
Didn't want to blow up my "ramblings"... Basically I enjoy this film cause of it's openness for associations.

As we all know by now, I love "odd". This is "odd" but in a very pleaseing way. I look at it like old art films and in fact, the texture of the imagery reminded me of 16mm films from the San Francisco area around the 60s or 70s. Hippie film school of sorts only more relaxed and modern.

I liked it very much. How well it fits the themes? It had your city in it, it had reflections of a mental sort in it one could argue. It fits. It's abstract and the music is so simple. You do that?

We are all waiting to hear what you have to say about this piece. I too will look at your other pieces. I am quite interested to know how you got the look. Nice muted colors, etc. I think I would have white balanced the gallery shot with the lights on, then turned them off and rolled tape so when they came on, it was a more natural color for a gallery. My only criticism.

This one is growing on me.

Sean McHenry

Hi there
 

Hello everyone!

The move to Austin went very well. I just arrived last night with my car and roughly 65 corals and 5 fish (my other obsession - reef keeping). The move was without incident, thankfully, and everything is looking good.

A bit about myself.

My work concentrates on conceptual and experimental projects, and rarely the more commercial pieces. I've produced several short films, a slew of music videos and performance films, and what seems like an endless supply of complete nonsense... but in a good way :)

I will start my MFA degree at the Univ of Texas in Austin this fall.

As far as the film, I think a few of you hit it right on the head. The man is my good friend Jonathan who owns a contemporary art gallery in Sarasota. I've always known him to be introspective, always planning in his head and rarely letting anyone else in on his schemes. I wanted to capture very simple moments in his day, and let those images as a whole tell the story, however 'normal' the story may seem. It's a slice of his life. If we view our own lives in this way we will see our day-to-day 'story' is VERY un-eventful: Driving our cars, sitting at work, day dreaming, getting lunch, etc. What excites me is the conceptual side of our lives. Those moments of inner thought and relfection that only we know. This is how I saw "Reflections" thematically.

Equipment: Canon XL-2, 16x manual lens, Chrosziel follow-focus, 4"x4" Polarizing filter. Finalcut 5, After Effects Pro, Dual-core G5.

Thank you all, and I look forward to more comments and questions! ( I still don't have internet in the house, so please bear with me as I run back and forth to the coffee shop :P )

Oh, and Sean,

The color of the piece was intentional. I try to use colors to help the feeling of the shot and sometimes drive it. I actually did white balance the shot, but to the outisde light coming in. The gallery lights become unnatural, which fits in with the theme, however subtle.

If you check out some of the films on my website, you can see I am very conscience of the colors and their balance in relation to the scene and the mood I'm illustrating, I'm just not concerned with the white being balanced in all situations.

Any more questions?

And I guess I should respond to the 'No story' comments.

I truly believe that not everything should be handed to us on a plate. I think there are so many wonderful subtleties in life that go unnoticed, and if we can take a minute to 'reflect' on those then we can become better storytellers or artists (if that's your thing... it's definitely mine...). The benign side of life always goes untold, however this is what we all deal with for most of our lives. We don't all experience exploding cars, extraordinary events, space travel, gunshots, etc. This is fiction handed to us so we can live vicariously through it. It dosen't represent anything that we may experience.

What's interesting to me, and what I try to accomplish with my work is this view of life and it's components. I'm not interested in embellished storylines or superhero characters as anything more than a thin layer of entertainment. I do enjoy these movies on that level, but I don't incorporate them into my greater understanding of the world around me.

So I guess in this way, then no, it doesn't have a 'story' as so many films do. What it does have, however, is several moments in a real persons day, and that 's more intersting to me.

Just my view :P

Joe,

When I made my first short, I was very proud of it. It was a story that I loved and I told it pretty much the way I wanted to tell it. I was surprised to discover that a lot of people had very NEGATIVE reactions to this short. What I found funny and human, and worth celebrating, others found crass and devoid of merit.

I love making shorts. I should love the shorts I make because I get to make exactly the scenes that interest me. They tend to be character pieces, with intense feelings between people with conflicting goals, because that's what I want to watch.

But what I want to watch may not be what you or others want to watch. I'll tell you whether I get your short or not, because I want to hear the truth from others, even if they hate my movie. Your short wasn't unpleasant to watch (go to different sites and you'll find many that are painful to watch), but I didn't get the message of the movie. That's all.

I'm no brilliant movie critic so my not getting it isn't any indictment. I don't get Citizen Kane!

So my advice is to continue to make the shorts that please YOU. Ultimately, you're the only one you need to please.

Keep making them!

Dick