Mapping The Thoughts, the written part of the Critical Reflection

“When you starts a process , you never know how the it will end, but once you get the feeling, a sort of inspiration get to you and you have follow it. In doing so you encounter a world of possibilities and to attain the adequate results one must be flexible and persevere, because sometimes the ideas are to big or too small for the final creation to come to life. But no matter what, one  MUST keep the conviction and the decision of creation.”

Objective: to exalt the process and its details for a more palatable learning experience.

Title: The process and 

How to dig little deeper, clean a little bit, move it, leave it, keep it, improvise, research, learnt it , do it, return, Voliá

Before any sort of story can be presented, the director must bear to see the boundaries and the limitations of the tools that will aid the confection of his or her creation.  Also by the light of creativity and imagination one must overcome the boundaries with the conviction that the idea must be born and must come to exist.

At first, I wanted  my film to be about self discovery and as I wanted to create characters without using persons, my first idea was to use objects and, in their own utility, make them serve as a parlours and focal points to the main character which remain unknown for me at that time. Later the idea developed into the idea to personify architecture to make statements about life.  After a research about the art behind architecture I came up  with tons  analogies, I stumble upon many  precious insights about how architecture can elope with most of our human angst.  One was that “As the buildings tend to sacrifice their ideal artistic intention for utility people also tend to avoid their own impulse of being for their functionality of society”  There were also many  others that seemed equally good. So I decided to cut down the chase and blindfolded picket one analogy. I chose the atemporality of the being and its decay and remerging  through the passage of time. 

I did some sketches for a possible introduction in which I would merge people and architecture to convey that analogy and exchange their respective adjectives into a well structured narration. I was inspire by Faulkner and Proust and use their styles as layouts.And as I wanted music in my film I research Tchaikovsky, Overtures and then septets. And after focusing more in the passage of time I stumble across a deeper indication on how time itself viewing it with another perspective can challenge conventions  represented in social tendencies and mindsets. I brought in the notion on how telling a story from another point of view saves people as-well as ideas. There are moments when we say that some people have their "inner child" who doesn't age throughout the years. Or say that there are people that  are wise beyond their years. We have all seen the special innocent smile that some elders sometimes wear, and we also have seen the deep and almost sage expression on some of the infants' gazes. When we see those details, they seem to captivate and almost tell an unspotted secret about us. In such times we presence an untold story...

Society is structured by time, everything has a date and an hour: birthdays, deaths, journeys, breakups, anniversaries. It helps us keep track of events and important things, but more often than not it also constrain us in the form of deadlines, stress and anxiety. People worry about getting older of loosing youth, people worry about ageing and about growing. People tend to forget about those smiles and gazes that once reminded them that there is something bigger and greater than time...

I took the challenge to remind the people about that something, The idea of turning that notion inside-out to the the people is to surprise and innovate by remembering. It is meant to make people see explicitly what in reality is  tacit and veiled. It is a statement about how much real and how much weight our inner presence has and contrast it to the austerity and relativity of time and age with is often weighed and valued blackguards.

The film will be an experience that will bring the viewers closer to their atemporality and immensity. It is an honor for me to provide with the medium and the production of that experience as I know that  reality sometimes portrayed time as  something intimidating, I have dealt too many times with  the idea of the passing of time and its inevitableness, I have seen the anxiety and even the depression that it brings. By reminding the people that there are some aspects of our being that never seems to be affected and  by highlighting the people  that some other aspects are in constant growth through the experiences, people can enrich their lives and be in state of wholeness and empowerment.

Getting more technical about the production, to express the ambiguity of time in the person as well as their enduring essence I was planning to shift my character's age on the visuals. For example for the character of the grandmother, which the narration will describe her using elements that revolves around anciently and decay, was to be  be portrayed by  young woman in the visuals, and her liveliness will be enhance on the angles shots. But as the product as not going to be presented in its full composition I decided that it will be to obscure and difficult for the audience to understand the whole intention in a couple of minutes of introduction.It was a great idea but the guidelines of the project fell short.  In addition as I wanted to start with a stream of conciseness I was going  to start the film  with visuals that will  mirror  the disjointed thought pattern to add a sense of abstract realism. But alas, to the same cage the bird flew. 

As you see, my production skills develop throughout this project by the means of trial and research, by self-reflecting on the content and most importantly the constant reminder of the purpose,. Thats how my product that originally was meant to be highlighting the objects, shifted to architecture, then to time and at last to a unique piece with artistic coloration and rich  connotations. As one can see in the final product, my choices were entirely different from my previously planned ideas.

For the opening, the young girl holding the blue garment represented the mind holding the stream of consciousness. I glorify  the ideas and the thoughts that one has inside the mind by the personification of the process itself: the muse of inspiration holding the stream of ideas in a surreal place.To  accentuate the strength of such process I use  the intense Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129 by Schumann in the background…

Also I use tungsten coloration for the visuals and a various shot at different angles, mainly  low and high angles to add space and height. Close ups and  medium shot were particularly use to create that sense of intimacy.

After the Stream of consciousness, for the actual introduction the mise-en scene was settled in a white room. For better presentation and  to signal the opening artificial light was used. I filmed the lights turning on as the non-diegetic music stated in order to physically present a dynamic beginning. I was blessed to have my grandparents visiting so I directed all my narrative to them as characters. I was careful in establishing the shots in a aesthetically pleasing manner. Close ups were specifically use as I wanted to capture their expressions. For specific symbolisms, the plants which they are holding are meant to  represent life and the growing love, also they are used to  evoke freshness and a object identification. Lavender is mean to present the soothing and feminine  properties of the being, that makes sense as my  grandmother is holding the flower. For my grandfather he is holding the marigolds, in aztec tradition they were use a transitional elements between life and death. It is  an esoteric  symbolism and It fits the narration and regardless of the audience understanding the context of them they are overall  a harmonious choice for the visuals. 

Also,music is used as a transitional element In the introduction the music shifts to a more lively stance as Consolation no 3. by Liszt is played,  I chose the piece because it was a way to establishing a tone of comfort and sympathy, it lightens the penetrating force of the cello and in a way, as the visuals becomes more colourful the music lightens as well…

To include all these element into a constant production the integration of software was essential. I was thankful because many of them were part of the Apple system(iMovie and garageband) and the online elements for research were readily available in the search engine of Google.  I recording the narration using Garageband (I edited my voice to have a radio format).I downloaded the music for a database of internet and then transferred them both to iTunes  by export in them in an mp3 format and then I exported them back to iMovie where I locate the elements in comprehensive sequences. I used a Cannon Powershot  SX30 in recording form using tungsten format. 

 Moving on to the narration, after so much thought I really wanted to reach out to my audience as loyal to my idea as possible, so I  decided to produce the narration in my native tongue in order to add an original and more expressive presence. It was a challenging decision as I have to translate the narrative, into english as a template for a  non-speakers to understand but it is worth the addition of work in the exchange of the easiness in which my ideas can be presented, moreover the possibilities of word choice and  the flow of ideas will make justice to the novel intention that I want to share. My audience is an international one, and as my product is by no means commercially intended I would distribute it  in a platform that welcomes  foreign and artistic products without precedent. Vimeo and Netflix are well intended to that purpose. I wish I could expound more on the distribution but the process is rather simple, for Vimeo one can just create a username and upload any content, and for Netflix a formal petition should be stated as well as legal documents about copyright. 

 As director and producer I’am not particularly interested in the monetary gains the product gains. The productions was on a very  low budget: I didn’t have to pay for my actors, the music was for the public domain and the software and products used  were available at no cost.

 If I should ought to contemplate any commercial use then I would have had produce an entire different product. I quite enjoy people gravitating toward my creation by the means of coincidence and destiny. I know is an idealistic and unrealistic way to cope with the distribution and audiences for any product at all, but I have taken the luxury to do it as it is a project that was almost a introspection to myslef, I molded it to contain a human element, a living thought. Besides, Cinematography needs variation of purpose to the entropy of the field to sufficient to maintain its state as an organic system. Art is Art right?

Translation

Translation

Title: Beneath Another Sky

Dedicated to all concentric souls of atemporality.

Introduction:

Its hard. Life is full of ambiguities: time passes without hesitation, but sometimes it stops and I don´t know where it stays. It  stays in the moments. Well perhaps in the persons.

If the bug stays in the ambergris does it dies? If it lives, does it becomes part of the stone´s immortality?

Suddenly we die, and forever we remain alive. I can say then, that life traps us under the succulent temporality without us knowing. We only see parts of it. We feel its complexity but never really see it.

It would be easier to follow every line seeing the hand completely, “ there goes the love, fortune, life…” But very often we suffer, when, without knowing why, the path suffers  in itself a line that suddenly losses itself in the way, also sometimes we only feel that they intertwine of a sudden…

In ancient times one din´t lose sight of those things.  Live and death were prepared, they were transcended, they were antagonised, one died giving life to death, by painting it.

It was exiting to think that life could be filled with ambiguities.

Narration:

Grandma adorns her wrinkles with her smile and gaze too clear for the opaque vitality of her body. Her spirit is still dancing in its summit, like a sun at an afternoon.

The springs of her years enhanced the perfume of her heart, quite auric and silverly by all the bright stars that illuminated her fourth thirds of a century during all her chanted nights.

When she laughs, her smile move all the flowers, they shudder with the innocent serenity that still keeps under that rugose countenance that has enthralled so much behind those rays of skin.

And under those eyes the lavender shades keep hanging those unflinching dreams of heroic fights which keeps alive the fire some missing youth that once oceans burned.

And just as the sun sees the moon, she looks in love at Grandpa, who with the presence of an elephant and its ivory, poses himself in the fountains of patience and perseverance in oder to give time the effervesces of our days.

With his white skin and green eyes, he gives the impression of the jades of a distant land, they give the same curiosity which they enhance, his freshness seems to remain undaunted, that on which seems to characterise the young infant  that with extraneous serenity  constrains himself for the world but conserves at the same time the yearning  of sensibility that gives flight to the most gigantic  and tempestuous feelings beneath an appeased gaze…

Both, he and she see life, and life sees them. Like two tomes of a same book they travel, speak and plant it. An in the imagination, the buds of the passions that can only be seen in the eyes and the buds of the pains that can only be cast into tears, they blossom in sighs and winks into the light that time delivered to them beneath another sky.

The shortened version is presented in the film opening, the dialogue goes as follows:

Its hard. Life is full of ambiguities: time passes without hesitation, but sometimes it stops and I don´t know where it stays. It  stays in the moments. Well perhaps in the persons.

Suddenly we die, and forever we remain alive. I can say then, that life traps us under the succulent temporality without us knowing. We only see parts of it. We feel its complexity but never really see it.

It would be easier to follow every line seeing the hand completely, “ there goes the love, fortune, life…” But very often we suffer, when, without knowing why, the path suffers  in itself a line that suddenly losses itself in the way, also sometimes we only feel that they intertwine of a sudden…

Grandma adorns her wrinkles with her smile and gaze too clear for the opaque vitality of her body. Her spirit is still dancing in its summit, like a sun at an afternoon.

The springs of her years enhanced the perfume of her heart, quite auric and silverly by all the bright stars that illuminated her fourth thirds of a century during all her chanted nights.

And just as the sun sees the moon, she looks in love at Grandpa, who seems to characterise the young infant  that with extraneous serenity  constrains himself for the world but conserves at the same time the yearning  of sensibility that gives flight to the most gigantic  and tempestuous feelings beneath an appeased gaze…

Both, he and she see life, and life sees them. Like two tomes of a same book they travel, speak and plant it. An in the imagination, the buds of the passions that can only be seen in the eyes and the buds of the pains that can only be cast into tears, they blossom in sighs and winks into the light that time delivered to them beneath another sky.

A Glimpse

Google translator will be needed for this post, my apologies, but  I want to share this initial sketch for the stream of conciousness part of my introductory scene, it's in Spanish, so you'lo have to wait until I have finish with the translation.

Bajo otro cielo

Las almas conentricas del lo atemporal 

Es difícil,  La vida esta llena de ambigüedades, el tiempo pasa sin detenerse, pero aveces si se detiene, se queda en los momentos, bueno quizás en las personas. Si el insecto se queda en el ámbar se muere o vive y se vuelve parte de la inmortalida de la piedra?

De repente morimos y para siempre vivimos. Se podría decir entonces que en nuestra vida nos atrapa esa suculenta a temporalidad casi sin darnos cuenta. Solo vemos partes de ella.

Sería mas fácil recorrer cada línea viendo la mano completa, ahí viene el amor, la fortuna, la vida..Pero y muy a veces se sufre cuando sin saber porque se sufre en el camino una línea que se pierde derepente en el camino, muchas otras veces solo se siente que se enlazan en forma repentina...

En otros tiempos no se perdían de vista esas cosas, la vida y la muerte se preparaban, se trascendían,  se antagonizaban, se moría dandole vida a la muerte, la pintaban.

Era emocionante pensar que la vida estuviera llena de ambigüedades...

Abuela adorna sus arrugas con una sonrisa y mirada demasiado clara para su opaca vitalidad corporea. Su espíritu aun danza en la cúspide de un sol a medio día, las primaveras de los años le reslatan el perfume de su corazón basatne áureo y argenteo por todos los luceros que le alumbraron tres cuartos de siglo todas sus noches de canto.
Cuando se ríe,  su risa conmueve a todas la flores, las estremece en el sosiego inocente que  aun conserva sobre ese sembalnte rugoso que tanto a cautivado bajo esos rayitos de piel.
 Bajo  esas ojeras de lavanda se mantienen colgando esos sueños impávidos y luchas heroicas, mantienen el fuego vivo  de alguna juventud extraviada en el recuerdo que alguna vez incendio mares. Y así como el sol y la luna se miran ella mira enamorada a Abuelo que con la presencia de une elefante y su Marfil se posa en los manantiales de la paciencia y perseverancia para darle al tiempo la espuma de nuestros días, su tez blanca y sus ojos verdes dan la impresión de los jades de alguna tierra lejana, dan la misma curiosidad que resaltan, su frescura parece mantenerse impávida, la que parece caracterizar  al párvulo que con extraña serenidad se constriñe ante el mundo pero conserva el anhelo de la sensibilidad que da vuelo a los sentidos mas  gigantes y tempestuosos bajo una mirada  aplacada.

Los dos, el y ella ven la vida y la vida los mira. Como dos tomos de un mismo libro la recorren, la platican, y la siembran. Y en la imaginación, los capullos de las pasiones que solo se pueden contar con la mirada y de los dolores que solo se pueden colar en las lagrimas, brotan en suspiros y pestañeos, la luz que el tiempo bajo de otro cielo.

Plotshift

A new and fresh decision is developing in Alvise's studio. The decision of having my film narration in my native toung in order to add an original and more expressive presence. It is a challenging decision as I have to translate the narrative and add subtitles, but it is worth the addition  of work in the exchange of the easiness in which my ideas can be presented, moreover the possibilities of word choice and  the flow of ideas  will make justice to the novel intention that I want to share.

Of Visions and Mixtures

The vision in mixtures

For my film opening I'm going to start the film with the narration as a stream of consciousness, the visuals will  mirror  the disjointed thought pattern to add a sense of abstract realism. As the pattern of thought gradually settles, the narration will shift  into a narrative form,. the visuals will be shown more steadily, they will unveil progressively as the film introductions and moves toward a more structured atmosphere.

As to the sound: Besides the voice over narration, I will be using  diegetic-sound  on the stream of consciousness  but for the for the actual narrative, I will use as a non-diegetic sound the sound of classical a septet. I chose the septet because it  belongs to the romantic era of music, it will add warmth and closeness in addition, the current where it developed paid emphasis on their structure and composition, so to chose a structured piece without much severity and unsteady facets, will aid to contain the diverting ideas in a soothing background.

As for the acting: To express the ambiguity of time in the person as well as their enduring essence I will shift my character's age on the visuals. For example for the character of the grandmother, which the narration will describe her using elements that revolves around anciently and decay, she will be portrayed as a  young woman in the visuals and her liveliness will be enhance on the angles shots. In précis, the narrative will represent the time and the visuals will represent the being.

A Confession of Purpose

A Confession of Purpose

How to mend the danger of the single story of time...

"Telling a story from another point of view saves people as-well as ideas."

There are moments when we say that some people have their "inner child" who doesn't age throughout the years. Or say that there are people that  are wise beyond their years. We have all seen the special innocent smile that some elders sometimes wear, and we also have seen the deep and almost sage expression on some of the infants' gazes. When we see those details, they seem to captivate and almost tell an unspotted secret about us. In such times we presence an untold story...

Society is structured by time, everything has  a date and an hour: birthdays, deaths, journeys, breakups, anniversaries. It helps us keep track of events and important things, but more often than not is also constrain us in the form of deadlines, stress and anxiety. People worry about getting older of loosing youth, people worry about  aging and about growing. People tend to forget about those smiles and gazes that once reminded them that there is something bigger and greater than time...

I took the challenge to remind the people about that something, The idea of truing that notion inside-out to the the people is to surprise and innovate by remembering. It is meant to make people see explicitly what in reality is  tacit and veiled. It is a statement about how much real and how much weight our inner presence has and contrast it to the austerity and relativity of time and age with is often weighed and valued blackguards.

The film will be an experience that will bring the viewers closer to their atemporality and immensity. It is an honor for me to provide with the medium and the production of that experience as I know that  reality sometimes portrayed time as  something intimidating, I have dealt too many times with  the idea of the passing of time and its inevitableness, I have seen theres anxiety and even the depression that it brings. By reminding the people that there are some aspects of our being that never seems to be affected and  by highlighting the people that some other aspects are in constant growth through the experiences and enrich our lives,  they can achieve  state of wholeness and empowerment as they  feel an  embrace and a consolation.

From the foundation to its color

Decisions, desicions, special comment about my decision on my main theme

"After a weary an indecisive track, I stumble upon many  precious insight about how architecture can elope with most of our human angst. So I decided to cut down the chase and blindfolded picket one analogy. I chose the atemporality of the being and its decay and remerging  through the passage of time. "

My mother is a fish!
Now that I have a solid  base line, I may continue to the craft my dialogue, and to that I'm choosing to present it as a narrative, more specifically on a stream of thought.  After reading Faulkner and and Proust, I grow very fond of conveying an insight through a stream of consciousness and detailed narrative. Unlike Proust I will not base upon a specific memory, rather by series of diverting observations that collide in a stream like Faulkner, but with the detailed depth of Proust.(http://www.shmoop.com/as-i-lay-dying/writing-style.html) The composition of the narrative will reflect some of the characteristics of my character, as in the example, and even I may venture to connect different narration of the characters, who knows?

Tchaikovsky is He the One?
Meanwhile the stream continues to warms in my brain. I will like to find inspiration in music. I will like to enhance my dialogue with it, and what a better way to open a film that with an overture.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overture) I would like to feature Tchaikovsky for his dreamy atmosphere, listening to 1812 Overture, setted my standards pretty high. My subject of my narrative has to be solid enough to keep up with the clamor. The piece speaks of hope and dignity,  if I would talk about those themes I would choose it, but I'm looking for something more diluted. I will want to convey the atemporality of existence as it ages, so I want a lot of pauses, silences and repetitions. Any suggestions? I have in mind a lapse of hundreds years from now. I will be interesting to convey in modern time a tone created so long ago, besides antique music is generally disposed to the public domain, its a combo!
Music for the public domain can be found on:  https://musopen.org

A Sketch

Rough Sketch Of Introductory Dialogue:

I can be a kindergarden, I may pull back my hat and unlace my shoelaces and our youth can be  shared. And as I  grow up, I can  be a tall building of a big city, made of steel. And  I may pull a solid very grey tie and a shiny shoes to claim adultness.  

I distress then now as I think about it because I have to keep it  realistic, sometimes I have to tie my shoelaces so I don't fall and turn my hat around for the sun, and for the future near to come I may relax my tie on summer and stain my shoes on its rainy days. Does that meant that I become less of a kid, or less of an adult?A disappearing flight overcame my senses. Oh I hope not to disturb my bricks by these melancholic schemes.

I remember what my grandma use to say when she referred to the unusual countenances of  the tablecloth, as she aired it, in her mischievous paused voice said: “The impediment  seeing the tangible aspects of it may not be a problem, the problem is when people cease to see a meaning in it and forget its an illusion.”

Her gaze was all wrinkle but  her smile and eyes remained unaffected. And although her gaze seemed more heavy and more attached to the bone she attained  the kind of dignity a fainted facade bestows on its longevity…

Research on Architequture

In the midst of the feeling

Research:

Source 1:

Architecture, unlike all other arts, serves a functional

as well as an aesthetic role.

The architect Louis Kahn once commented that

while a painter can paint square wheels on a cannon to express the futility of war,

and a sculptor can carve the same square wheels, an architect must always use

round wheels.

Although he was making a polemical point, his aphorism does

hold true: a building must not just look good; it must also serve a purpose.

https://www.academia.edu/2291027/How_do_buildings_mean_Some_issues_of_interpretation_in_the_history_of_architecture

by: WILLIAM WHYTE

Source 2:

Each nuance that a building emits comes together to become more than the sum of its parts. And often, that sum can be said to be an inherent character that a building exudes. But where does such character come from? And how do we know that a building has personality?

Even something as simple as the way a handrail feels as you glide your hand along it while going up the stairs can feed into what you perceive as an environment’s personality. Those details that feed the senses come together to engage you — just as the sounds that a building’s materials make as you walk across the floor can tip you off about that space’s characteristics. Again, such details all come together to yield more than the sum of their parts. But what does this mean? Why care about your building’s personality?

In all of the places where your architecture “touches” its occupants, its personality gets formed. And this is true for all those that experience your building — both for those within it and for those who experience it from the exterior. This means that your building also gains personality in the way it relates to its neighbours — where it takes its own place within a larger context. Perhaps that means it has a role to fulfil or that it has a message to convey.

Whatever the case, know that when you design, you need to think about how your building will take its place, as it “touches” its occupants in meaningful ways. And each time that your building interacts with occupants, it is revealing a piece of its personality.

http://sensingarchitecture.com/8743/what-gives-a-building-its-personality/

Comments:

It make me think that architecture sometimes has to scarify some of its meaning for usefulness and to bare with reality, I wonder it it happens the same with us, we also tend to chop down some of our expressions to make an effort to move with our respective roles: I no longer see adults run on streets or smile too much, maybe they are contracted with too much utility and functionality. They have cease to give a meaning of fun and leisure, even friendliness, for their functions as “adults.”

Also there is the idea that as life happens it appears to faint our facade. Our expression seemed more heavy and more attached to the bone, silly lines tend to curve our in expressions.We must not forget that life is gives us character and courage, they are an impression of a lifetime. 

Of Boundaries and Mountains

Part one: Fabricating an idea using the limitations of the environment as a starting points.

Before any sort of story can be presented, the director must bear to see the boundaries and the limitations of tools that will aid to the confection of his or her creation. By the light of creativity and imagination one can overcome the boundaries with the conviction that the idea must be born and must come to exist.

Introduction:
My boundaries will be listed as an apparent statement. Then a question may arise to give the reflector to a chance to tame the impossible. The answer may contain an insight to the creation of the story or further search of information may be stated. Then an example may lead to an idea and the idea to a possibility.(lightbulb)

Lets begin:

Statement: People available to use as characters are constrained.

Question: How I am going to create characters without using persons?

Answer: By alluding to personification and animation of still life.

Example: The architecture itself can be a character (Sidewalls, 2011)

Light bulb: The main character may dialogue with the structures; each will create its identity and aid to the interpretation.

The things around may also, in their own utility, serve as a parlors and focal points to the main character. (The beauty and the Beast, Disney)

 Additional materials:

A study of personification can be use the architecture of an accessible location (Florida: Weston, Miami). Search for the form and geometry of personality, look for trends (Art deco maybe) and use them to develop the character. Use common sense: Let the forms be inferred (Picasso aggressive sharp straight lines or smooth calm curvature)

Search for the most common materials at hand, and gather their character.

Light bulb: The main character can be discovered thorough the animated characters

Who I’m not in order to know who I’m to be me?

Statement: Quality of the camera and its dimensions only provides a single lens.

Question: How can I create new lenses)?

Answer: Water (in all of its phases) and Glass allies.

Idea: Our main character may be described in first person; water could be use during stages of confusion and or illusion. Glass can be use to connote a feeling of separation.

Additional Materials: Search visual effects of water, mirrors and plastic.

Light bulb: Main Character may be abstract or never found. Misguided spirit, curious angel?

Worm-wrap(aka foreshadowing): The opening could be used to foreshadowing the quest for discovery by they to be decipher the setting.

Welcome

Welcome to the journey of an idea that took flight in a short film opening!

Through this blog, you special visitor, will be witnessing the process of that idea, the dissemination of its purpose and intention. In addition, you will understand how, through discovery and research, and more importantly through inspiration, one can materialize a reality.