Photo Essay Write-Up

The piece I constructed for this project combined two of the choices: using computed generated images along with the concept of a photo essay. This was not part of my planning, but something I stumbled upon as I began to shoot the photos. My original plan was to create a time lapse around a room, encircling my subject, who had taken pills similar to the concept in my new finished product. As I began this, however, I realized the difficulty of changing the same room about 20 different ways, and I started to feel that this did not depict a 'drug trip' as I had hoped too. I had shot the original pieces and attempted to alter them in photoshop, but I was unhappy with the results. On my walk home I looked up at the construction near my home, and I realized then what my project would now center on. The 'drug trip' would now be experienced in motion, as if the drug user set off on a journey to experience these new pills in the world rather than in his home. So, after one photo shoot, I grabbed my drug user again (in character only), and began this next round of shots starting first outside, to signify that the user was intent on taking this 'trip' around town.

The most exhilirating aspect of this second round of shots is that I only had one photo planned, the shot of him looking up at the large apartment building still under construction, also the shot that inspired this entire second round. I had vague ideas in my head of what some shots could look like, but did not know locations or how many I would take. We simply set out on a journy, trying to place ourselves in the minds of this drug user, attempting to discover what a fun 'trip' gone bad may lead him too. However, this gone bad aspect is something I came upon just after the shots in the alley (where the text 'fadeout' can be seen). This was the turning point of the shot. After this my intent was to show how this will not be such a happy ending. After wandering around the campus for a good amount of time, and tirelessly reviewing the photos I had on memory, I discovered that there were three stages of the 'trip' that had emerged in the photos. The first was the enjoyable experience, lasting until the 'fadeout' in the alley, the second was the questioning and paranoia, shown until the Alma mater shot, and the third being a spiritual awakening, culminating to the suicide in the last two photos. I feel as though these three parts compose three entirely different experiences and essays. On pg. 61 of Ways of Seeing, Berger talks of art confronting the user rather than us looking unto it, and these three different photo essays achieve this. I force the 'drug trip' experience onto the viewer, make them feel the experience, both the fun hallucinogenic aspects and the scary paranoia bits. This culminates into a spiritual experience, a 'walk into the light' as shown by one photo, that forces the viewer to understand what I wanted them to see in this experience, the power that these drugs have had over this man. All of this culminates into the final two photos, one of a jump over the ledge (which was a huge obstacle in photoshop) and the lifeless body on the ground. I attempted to make these images seem clear, but have an element of 'cartoon' to them. At first I just saw these images as appealing, sublime in how they charcterize his fated fall. But then I noticed that they took on this cartoon element, which reminded me of the McCloud piece which explained how cartoons and simplified images allow us to envision our self as the character drawn. This struck me as significant since this would make these last two images seem as though they could be you, the viewer. This essentially altered the entire aim of the photo essay, turing it more into an anti-drug ad than the experience of taking drugs. This was not at all my intent, but I feel I stumbled upon an effective anti-drug meaning to this piece.

The last part of the project that was a 'break-through' in a sense was the writing that is hidden and integrated into the last half of the project. This began when I put 'fadeout' into one image, and felt I could tell a story with the last tragic half of the story. The phrases are meant to explain what may be occuring in the mind of the subject while he is experiencing what is happening around him. None of these were envisioned while taking the photos, but were rendered when altering each image indepedently.

and the video...

Written Response...

Forget everything I said about the audio project. Well not everything, but the part about it being the hardest project of the semester. My confidence was proven erroneous over and over again on this project, probably because of my forgetting that the last time I worked on iMovie HD it was senior year of high school. Now, four years later, I ran into quite a lot of trouble. The writing process began with an idea to shoot video on art students. I know nothing about their program, what they do, or what they will do when they receive a degree, so I figured it would be interesting. Then I realized why I knew nothing about them: they are never around and have class or studio 24/7. Even though I have a good friend who lives with me in the art program, scheduling was next to impossible, especially when trying to coordinate three chaotic schedules during midterm week (project critique week for the art students, as I learned). This set Eric and I back… huge. The project seemed to be doomed from the start, but then there was a glimmer of hope as my stomach turned for food early Saturday morning. BAGELS. I realized that I love bagels. Then I realized, “Hey, Howbowda documentary on these loved bagels?!?!.” And there you have it, we were off to the races. Eric and I quickly drafted up question after question that we could use to create this documentary. I swear I could feel the cold, thin air of Utah brush across my face as I accepted my Sundance Film Festival award (haha). But really, I was excited to get going and set up shot after shot. And so we did. The filming was a blast, and the owners and employees were happy to help us out. Then all I had to do was creep around the quad to get a few cover video shots (I learned that phrase from my journalism buddy). This was easier than I had imagined, just point and shoot at anything with movement that looks interesting. After this, and checking out what Eric had filmed (we decided to film separately to allow flexibility and creativity apart form each other), we were ready to edit. This is where the troubles I spoke of above came in. The biggest problem: massive amounts of footage. Eric and I complied so much footage we didn’t know how to sift through it all. We eventually decided to take turns watching the interviews and street/quad shots, recording what we saw, noting a few key words, and writing down the clip number and time elapsed for that sequence. This proved to help a lot in the long term, since our storyline was vague and underdeveloped when we came to this stage. Our biggest mistake was just filming everything, without a guiding storyline or goal in mind. We figured it would be beneficial, but it proved to take up a lot more time than expected. However, once we had the keywords and times noted, the editing was pretty easy. The most fun part of the editing was choosing music. We had a ton of songs to choose from since we did the editing at my apartment, so my whole library was available. Still, the editing took much longer than expected, more because we enjoyed adding effects and music to the max, but this made our project more aesthetic and creative. In the end I realized one very important thing: iMovie HD is leaps and bounds easier than iMovie, especially when it comes to audio mixing.

my first '10 thing'

1) 'REDRUM' - above a urinal, English building, but the R's were the wrong way so it wouldn't read right in a mirror
2) While filming on the Quad, amidst the choas and scramble, in the cold, stood a young guy playing hacky sack by himself. It calmed and soothed me b/c I really needed a break right then with 7 hrs of class to go.
3)4th and Healey - @ least 12 pumpkins smashed in a block span before it was even Halloween
4)4th and Green - Big Brown wig amongst a bed of dying flowers
5)Group of three people, walking in unison, all holding hands... i dont get it
6)An email -> You Vote, Free Starbucks... sooo progressive
7)Two squirrels mating... pause as we walk by... return to the deed when I'm @ a distance
8)Halloween - 3 Dads walk down green street, all decked out in 'Hater's Ball' full-out pimp suits
9)Construction site - 1 digging, 6(!) watching... classic
10)A car w/ a 'I have a son in the Marines' and 'Obama '08' bumper stickers (i love it)

From Aaron:

1. Do you think it's more important to collaborate or to compete in the realm of the arts?

This question is loaded. Both are extremely important. The readings today discuss that collaboration is actually competition, that we compete while collaborating to make our works progress, to make them as good and creative as possible. It is through this competition that we push each other, essentially trying to better the last one's work, not to defeat them but to progress the work towards an ultimate goal. The realm of arts is always in play, in pure competition or collaboration. Both are of equal importance and each works together to accomplish a greater good with the goal of the work.

Questions on Collaboration

1)  What have been some successes and failures of co-authorship in the past for you?  What difficulties/successes have you had with the video project so far in this aspect?

2) Imagine you sit in front of a board of authors, all of whom worked on the same piece you mean to inquire upon.  Do you feel that when you ask a question whoever answers is the most knowledgeable on that topic?  Or would you expect to hear a response from all the authors, since they all comprised this work?  Basically, would you expect a clear line between what each is versed at or what each studied, or do you think they all would have comprehensive knowledge?

3) Interview question:  Where in your life have you found that a collaboration was necessary to complete a task?  How did you accomplish this goal with others, and what skill sets did you call upon to do so?