Project 1

This project was quite a learning experience for me, and it was completely experimental because I had never worked with real film with my hands before, so trying out a number of ways to modify it was intriguing and something I hope I can use in the future.  I found myself constantly thinking thoughouut the coruse of the project about ways I could use the skills we were learning and incorporate them into films that I shoot myself- animating over my own footage, coloring my own footage, etc. -but after seeing the finished project I've sort of come to the conclusion that while these forms of manipulation mix with each other quite well, they might not mix with actual video footage unless the filmmaker is a true master of manipulation, which I am not.

Working with Tasha helped this project go smoothly because we were both curious about the different types of media and both wanted to come up with something that really looked cool.  It was a good partnership because we both experimented a lot and if I tried something that didn't really work, Tasha's version of the same method looked great.  For instance, her rayograms were stellar, they were exposed just right and had tons of contrast which made for a cool look.  Meanwhile, mine were basically black.  But my paints and oils ended up looking really cool (completely by accident) especially the ones where I layered paint and oil a few times and got rich colors. 

Something I realized during that phase of the project is that film is sort of resistant to paint, so you have to be persistent in getting it to stick, letting it dry and then getting more on there.  The oil helps to make each frame have kind of a lava lamp look, and if you mix the right colors, the final product will be awesome.  Painting film is something that I probably will go back to in the future, because 1: it's relaxing sitting in a room with some music playing and painting whatever you feel like on the film and  2: watching a projected image with all those colors moving around is a surreal experience. Someday I want to pick a musical score and paint a film to go along with it.