BGSU FYP 4D

 Workshop Outline

Assignment 1 Handout On the Fence 

Assignment 2 Handout  Book 'Em

Assignment 3 Handout Pregnant Pause

4D Intro Power Point  

Intro to 4D concerns.   It links out to  videos.

Kuleshov Experiments Power Point NEW!

How context creates meaning.  Links out to  videos.

4D Elements Power Point NEW!

Intro to the elements of 4D design. 

Installation Art Power Point NEW!

Intro to installation art and documentation. 

Performance Art Power Point 

Clear intro to Performance.  It links out to  videos.s

imovie 9 Tutorial  

Get the FREE storyboarding and preproduction software Celtx for yourself and your students.  This is a really convenient way to have students do and turn in their storyboard fieldwork in the Canvas environment.  They can still do their storyboards on 3X5 cards but then shoot them with a camera or cell phone and upload them to Celtx to add text, blocking and reorder.

Artist's Talk by Pheobe Washburn at Boston College. The video is a little long and Ms. Washburn is not the most engaging speaker, but the first 20 minutes or so of this video is a good introduction to the installation project.  Here is a young woman deeply engaged with process and materials, creating  large scale installations using inexpensive materials and simple techniques.  This really helps to reinforce many of the learning outcomes for the program such as work ethic, "fail forward", and think with process, in addition to providing concrete examples of how successful installation transforms materials and spaces by focusing on the principles of context, repetition and alienation.

Time Piece by Jim Henson 1964

Here is a pretty good 9 min movie for introducing 4D elements such as duration, tempo (pacing), intensity, scope, setting, continuity, sequence and transition.  

The final "toilet/wink" sequence is a great opportunity to bring up and address cliché.

Ostensively a humorous film about time, the scope of the film is large, dealing with basic questions of nature vs. culture, focusing on the continuity of human drives and fears (focus on sex, food, flight, castration (the "Tarzan/martini" sequence!), failure & death) and the mutable, protean nature of the self (Jim as patient, worker, husband, perv, hero, doctor, caveman etc) and it also functions as a pointed satire of contemporary culture.  Numerous  references to Dali and Bruñuel's surrealist masterpiece, Un Chien Andalou.

 The Kuleshov Experiments

Basic experiments that explore how juxtaposition and sequence create meaning.  Existing footage is short and in bad condition, but it gives a flavor of this pivotal work conducted by a teacher and his students.  

It's hard to impress upon our students how radical a departure this was because his three main contributions, created place, created figure, and created meaning are so much a part of our visual culture.

Sergei Eisenstein referred to this as "the third meaning" where montage creates the meaning by the active participation of the viewer as opposed to passive reading of visual signs.  He used the formula A + B = C. I explain it using a different formula: 1 + 2 = 12 because the original meanings "1" and "2" are still in the  new product ("12" is both 1 and 2 and neither 1 nor 2. Putting a 1 and a 2 next to each other creates something with an entirely new meaning 12)

Hitchcock explains the Kuleshov Effect to Fletcher Markle. 1964

In this short interview clip Hitchcock explains the Kuleshov Experiments with a great recreation of the experiment with his own trademark droll yet dark twist. 

Un Chien Andalou Part I

Dali and Bruñel

This is the first part of the film that contains the famous opening sequence of the sliced eyeball/moon.  Very useful for showing editing transition based on all of the relationships:

graphic relationship- creates    visual continuity

metaphoric relationship- creates   conceptual continuity

movement relationship- similar   motion of the subject or the   camera creates continuity

chronological relationship-   scenes   naturally seem to   follow each   other in time or as cause & effect

  Un Chien Andalou Restored

This is a recently restored version that claims to represent Bruñel's soudtrack more faithfully.  The Tangos, added in the 1950s have been removed and the first 2 minutes are silent.  The pacing has also been slowed to the original and the value is no longer blown out.  In general the whole movie becomes less like a cartoon or charicature.  It's a very useful exercise to compare the two versions to open up class discussions about pacing and the impact of sound.

Andrew Goldsworthy excerpt 1 from Rivers and Tides

In this clip he is building a fragile reed and thorn sculpture which is destroyed when a sudden breeze comes up.  One can see his frustration--It looks as though he might even cry.  

Good time to discuss setbacks and perseverance in addition to issues of  site specific sculpture and the use of humble, everyday materials.

Andrew Goldsworthy excerpt 2 from Rivers and Tides

Sorry, Now in German.  Only available copy I could find.  In this clip he stacks driftwood into a dome structure with occulus.  Tide comes in and lifts the dome to drift away to sure destruction.

Nice  to contrast this to the first clip. In both time takes its toll but here Andy sees nature as a collaborator.  The destruction was anticipated as part of the piece.  Instead of frustration he waxes poetic about the transformation.

 Kinetic Sculpture and Installation

Reuben Margolin, a Bay Area visionary and longtime maker, creates totally singular kinetic wave sculptures, using everything from wood to cardboard to found and salvaged objects.  

Moments

This is a Radio Lab video experiment that is EXCELLENT to show for the final video assignment.     Excellent examples of editing and pacing and the content is similar to what we are asking the students to do.

Words

This is another Radio Lab video experiment.   Tight editing. Excellent framing.  It is structured around "illustrating" a handful of words, yet there is still a traditional narrative arc created by the sequence.

 Messa di Voce

Golan Levin, Zachary Lieberman  

Great example of straight up performance art, interactive video and of synaesthesia.

Student Installation Examples

I movie 11 tutorial made by our good friend Gary Setzer at the University of Arizona 

Garage Band tutorial produced by Gary Setzer at the University of Arizona.  Thanks Gary! 

Short video where Gordon discusses his relationship to cinema and video. 

Bill Viola talks about a very personal relationship to video.