Film 202 Blog #3 One Sentence

In one sentence, based on your reading on this particular journal, describe

the state of media making (being an artist, being a filmmaker) today.

Online Journal: Sense of Cinema. Under the section, Great Directors.
Journal: Alex Cox.
Here is the sentence I have written.

"Today’s art world could be drastically changed if every film maker used their idealism to make and form their films."

By Matt Gonia.

Film 202 Blog #3 Journal Reading from Sense of Cinema

Blog Entry Three Journal Reading
In the journal, Alex Cox, written by Ralph Beliveau and Randolph Lewis under the Great Directors section of the online film journal, Sense of Cinema, these two authors discuss the career and more importantly the ideological esthetics that Director Alex Cox uses and portrays in his film. This journal is not so much about his technique or the physical methods he uses for film making or editing. This journal is more about the politics of Alex Cox film making. This is a reflection of Alex Cox deep ideological commitments as both a film maker and activists. In the journal, Ralph Beliveau and Randolph Lewis describe Alex Cox as a “…architect of his own form of punk surrealism.” The authors of this journal follow step by step Alex Cox’s career starting with a summery of his early life leading into the point when he made his first film.
Ralph Beliveau and Randolph Lewis wrote this about Alex Cox in their journal on Senses of Cinema.” Cox was almost 30 when he released Repo Man in 1984. Born outside Liverpool, England, in 1954, he attended Oxford University, Bristol University and UCLA, where he wrote a smart thesis on Spaghetti Westerns and completed a student film called Edge City for under $10,000. In the early 1980s, he fell into the punk scene in Southern California, where bands like X, Circle Jerks and The Germs were gaining prominence. Cox saw a subculture movement that “encouraged anarchic tendencies because it had revolutionary expectations”. Repo Man would be his opportunity to bring punk energy and oppositional politics into cinema.” This would be the major beginning point in Alex Cox career as a film maker. The high energy of the new punk seen had the esthetic for Alex Cox to integrate into his film, Repo Man. This set of ideological thoughts of anarchy, politics, and revolutionary idealisms gave Alex Cox the unique and highly stylized form in which to make his films. Beliveau and Lewis then go into a lengthy discussion of specific camera and editing techniques he used throughout this film that truly highlighted his idealism of punk energy and oppositional politics in cinema.
This is done for each of the films listed above. Beliveau and Lewis overall analysis focuses more on Alex Cox unique style and idealism that he puts into his films. This journal displays elements of a biography, a filmography, and an in-depth look at the concepts and fundamental esthetics that Alex Cox makes his movies all about. The authors emphasize their point by presenting each of the films and there by showing the direct cause and effect of Alex Cox film making. It is interesting to me that director Alex Cox is able to not only implement his idealism into his films but that he is able to use that idealism as the vehicle to form his film in its entirety. Beliveau and Lewis must have analyzed his films frame by frame in order to extract such a detailed analysis of what Alex Cox films are really about. The fundamental ideologies that Alex Cox has used to create and stylize his films are a unique and innovative method. Instead of formulating his style of film making by copying the techniques of others, Alex Cox has built a method in which he uses the thrill and high energy of the punk culture in cinema. Instead of letting his film dictate the visual appeal and the overall message of his movie, Alex Cox uses his form of “punk surrealism” to dictate the look and message of his movie.
The topic for this journal was far more stimulating and interesting then just another biography or critique of Alex Cox films. Instead Ralph Beliveau and Randolph Lewis went beyond the films or the film maker and discovered a far more important topic to bring to light. Discovering Alex Cox ideology and fundamentals from which he makes his films was something that should be brought to the attention of every film student. This is an exceptional and absorbing way of making film because it adds a more personal flare to the maker’s movies. It also pushes the film makers get in touch with personal ideologies and fundamental esthetics to which they could form their films into. This journal about Alex Cox is definitely an eye opener for me. It creates a desire within myself to develop my own way of creating a style of film making that is formulated through my own ideologies and fundamentals.

Film 202 Blog#3 Prt 2 Nathaniel Dorsky's “Three Songs”: “Song and Solitude”,“Winter, & Sarabande.”

Blog entry three, “Three Songs”: Recent Films by Nathaniel Dorsky

On Tuesday, November 25, 2008 the Union Theater at UW-Milwaukee displayed Nathaniel Dorsky’s new films “Song and Solitude” and “Winter, & Sarabande.” The following is a film comment by Paul Arthur found at http://canyoncinema.com/D/Dorsky.html “Song and Solitude" was conceived and photographed with the loving collaboration of Susan Vigil during the last year of her life. Its balance is more toward an expression of inner landscape, or what it feels like to be, rather than an exploration of the external visual world as such. Old School doesn't describe it. Dorsky has achieved such a subtle mastery over the most basic means of cinematic expression-composition, duration, juxtaposition-that he can squeeze a wealth of emotional vibrations out of the silent, seemingly banal interplay of foreground and background objects. A formalist with a brimming, elegiac soul, Dorsky will gently rock your attitude toward cinematic landscape. His world is a sublime mystery measured by patience and unmatched visual insight.” This film comment by Paul Arthur described Nathaniel Dorsky’s film, “Song and Solitude” with interesting facts and information that otherwise would have not been made known to me. The information about Dorsky’s mastery of visual landscapes rings true. When it comes to film, Dorsky is for the most part a purist in that he only focuses on the visual aspect of film and does not use sound. When I was in the theater watching these new films of Dorsky’s although it was visually stimulating at other moments the silence was deafening.

I have seen Nathaniel Dorsky’s work before and I am a fan of his brilliant films. I must admit that I would have liked to hear some of the sounds of San Francisco. I have never been there and I think it would have been enlightening to hear the sounds of the local environment where he was filming. When the viewer is seeing these films for the first time the silence in the film changes the experience of watching. Sometimes the mind will try and fill in the silence with sounds that seem familiar to what the viewer is seeing but ultimately the silence takes grasp of the viewers and it is that which focuses the attention of the viewer more so. The absents of sound in these films makes the viewing process unique in that it makes the viewer more reliant on what they are seeing do to the feeling of sudden loss of audio. Every frame in each of these films is a visual gem in a cinematic landscape.

Sound and film done together is an art in itself to master. However film done with no sound which is focused on visuals alone is a completely different and more complex art form to master. Nathaniel Dorsky is a true master when it comes to silent film making. It is his ability to craft and film visual gems that makes his movies a treat in themselves to watch.

Matt Gonia at Glenn Bach & Aaron Ximm Blog#3 Film 202

Blog entry three Glenn Bach & Aaron Ximm

I am at Glenn Bach’s Film 116 class held in the Mitchell Building at UW-Milwaukee and it’s three pm. The show is about to start. There is a three person set-up with their laptops, large speakers, and of course their work. Glenn Bach greets the class and other visitors and announces that today’s performance would be an improvised, unedited, unrehearsed experience. Nearly 75% of all the soundscap is improvised. The show opens and Glenn Bach, Aaron Ximm, and Seth Warren Crow begin to generate their field recordings. It is quite for a second and then the sounds start to fade in. There is rapid bubbling, talking in what seem to be Russian and lightly dripping water on wet leaves which is very subtle. The sounds of rain falling, church bells ring far away, a heavy bass hum, sounds of a tub of water being disturbed by movement or churning, a women speaking in French as wood floor boards rattle lightly under footsteps. All seem familiar but also seem foreign or alien to me. The performance is balanced as each of them play their recordings and form a steady rhythmic composition of sound.
The unique and interesting sounds continue to play and while a new and non-traditional musical piece is created. The three man performance continues to play for the next hour. The time fly’s by unnoticeably. As I listen to all of these sound recordings it makes me think back to a quote that Glenn Bach presented to my class in his guest lecture of November 17, 2008; a quote that was said by Aaron Ximm, “The world makes its own music, but we rarely listen with naive ears.” As I listen to all of these field recordings I feel as though I am a witness to something more. Glenn Bach said in his lecture that, “Field recordings in general are a sonic equivalent of a photograph, a snap shot of sound.” This assessment that Glenn Bach made seemed to be very true although I couldn’t see the sound waves or exact place and time these sounds were captured. However I could in vision my own images to accompany these great sounds. Glenn Bach had said in his lecture “Going out to get field recordings requires a commitment to the moment and practice; temperance of the environment and patients.” I experienced this practice when I was in Glenn Bach’s Film 116 class but considering the level of commitment, the extreme patients, and the appreciation for when those moments come to capture the perfect sounds.
At the end of the performance Aaron Ximm took the time to take questions form the audience. His closing comments to the viewers came across as ultimately valuable in that he said, “Always bring your gear, when ever your ear catches something you’ll be bale to catch it; take the time to get longer takes, 5 minutes or more doesn’t matter what you record with as long as you use it.”