Escalators, Jewish Angels and White Rappers

The first annual CUFF, City University Film Festival, kicked off with a collection of student films this Sunday. Dozens of students and parents poured into the Macaulay Building, on West 67th Street to view the top fourteen student films of the over fifty submitted. The pieces ranged from documentaries, music videos and stop-motion animation. While a distinguished independent panel chose the top three movies, the audiences got to cast their secret ballot of their top three.
I thoroughly enjoyed every film, including the top three: "Bus Stop Sonata" by Eric Levy, "EscaLover," by Chun Kai Yang, and "Dance of Life" by Iin Purwanti. Nevertheless, I found myself enthralled by two consecutive pieces, which particuliarly struck a chord and reaffirmed the flexible power of the moving image.

First was Liat Krawczyk's "Those Places Between." Although the Hunter College senior had to edit down her documentary about the homeless teenagers of New York for the festival, the compelling stories of three troubled young men reached everyone in the audience. Shot on her handheld camera, Liat follows Johnny, Arthur and Alex. The threes stories intertwine between personal interviews and outrageous on-scene footage. It truly astounds me how far and much Liat followed these teenagers. From Drag bars, to the Covenant House and even sniffing cocaine in a Starbuck's bathroom, Krawczyk unapolegetically revealed the lives of these individuals. It's most striking aspect is its pervasive familiarity. I noticed the audience's initial reactions to the carefree, hedonistic, "sex, drugs, rock'n'roll" comments of the three youths. Giggles, jokes and even a few nods of agreement were common in the first two-three minutes of the screening. Yet as their desperation, hopelessness, and lack of self-respect unraveled in stories of prostitution, rape and family disownment, the audience sees the slippery slope of these youth's lifestyle. One of the most poignant scenes for me, was as Krawczyk followed Alex snorting cocaine in aStarbucks bathroom; I recognized it right away as the familiar coffee shop in Union Square. As he exited the restroom, to a line of onlooking and judgemental New Yorkers he mutters, "this must seem pretty desperate." The fact that I've been to this Starbucks, or even felt the desires to just "party" shamelessly blurred the line between the homeless and average teenager. Their lives might be troubled, but their circumstances are common. Although I don't think I'll be in their positions anytime soon, Krawczyk's gradual and revealing exposition made me empathize with the three boys in an indescribable way.

After such a touching and revealing piece, CUFF hurled the audience into the realm of the farcical, with Queens College's Cyreene Laljie's "Hihopopatmus vs. Rhymenoceros." This brilliant five minute music video futured to rhyming white boys gallivanting through the City trying to serenade two young ladies. The music video culminates in the addition of a rapping granny. While I can't recall every hip spit, I found myself in hysterics during the clip.

Every student piece reinspired me as not only a student of media, but as an appreciator of media art. The juxtaposition of these two pieces further demonstrated the overwhelming power of the moving image--to make us re-evaluate our own lives, or just laugh.

Lester Burnham - Hopelessly Hallucinating

I recently sat back on a Tuesday night to enjoy one of the most critically acclaimed feature length films of the 1990s—American Beauty. The winner of five academy awards was directed by Sam Mendes, written by Alan Ball and photographically directed by Conrad L. Hall. Besides revealing the emptiness, contradictions and duplicity of American suburban life, the film pushes the definitions of right and wrong, beauty and ugliness by focusing on the midlife crisis of Lester Burnham. Hall and Mendes push many of these themes with careful technical choices of framing and defining this main character. Focusing on the depiction of Lester in and opening scene compared with his dream sequences demonstrate this thematic development.
Within the first ten minutes of the movie, the audience learns that Lester finds his life uninspiring and boring. He risks loosing his job, a fact that is revealed in a one-on-one scene between Lester and his boss Bradley. This back and forth dialogue occurs between two shots. One focuses on Bradley from a lower-angle, giving him power and stance, shooting from this “worm’s eye view” makes the character wield more power, which he does the fate of Lester’s career. Lester however is filmed from a higher angle; the camera looks down on the pitiful 45 year-old as he accuses his boss and defends his job. Furthermore, the Director of Photography chooses a medium close up to film Bradley, probably with a telephoto lens so that the businessman takes up a third of the shot. The audience sees Lester in a long shot; the door plant and two corners of the room leave the grappling employer in about half the amount of screen space as his boss. These camera techniques accentuates Lester’s hopeless, cynical and powerless attitude in the beginning of the narrative.
Lester finally finds a distraction for his mundane life—a sixteen-year-old classmate of his daughter. When he sees her at a dance competition, the audience knows within seconds that he is absolutely smitten by this beauty. Camera angles, slower shots and strong zoom-ins, tell the audience that they are leaving reality and entering the fantasy world of the main character. A strong zoom-in on Lester’s dumbfounded expression crisscrosses with the image of Angela Hayes’ dance routine. Specific lighting centers around her to usher in the complete switch to daydream. A series of close-ups and extreme close ups on Lester’s face and eyes mirror his complete engrossment by this teenaged hottie. The director’s choice to replay the image of her unzipping her cheerleading jersey from varied angles, culminates in the flow of rose petals from her chest—an important symbol and image. Not only does this dream sequence trigger a change in the character, it sets up a strong break from the normal cinematography and sets a strong distinction of dream and reality which the director returns to throughout the remainder of the film.
The technical reveal of Lester Burnham reveals many of American Beauty’s strong themes. The Director of Photography makes a lot of strong choices to show both Lester’s hopelessness and hallucinations.

The Break-Down of Moving Images

After visiting the Museum of Moving Image, observing the many exhibits and participating in both the digital flip book, and stop animation workshops, I have a better understanding of the physical breakdown and mechanics of film and video. As a media artist, understanding the history and foundation of moving image is priceless and pertinent in any type of work. The common principle that the exhibits of picture books, Victorian toys, stop-motion animation and film illustrate is that moving images are an illusion of individual images placed together and shown in rapid succession. While this may seem rudimentary, seeing the break down of this optical illusion in its many forms highlights the importance of making every frame count; it offers a new perspective on the moving image as visual art.
The “Stop-Motion Animation” workshop highlighted the importance of each shot. Because for this project we had to actually break down each frame, taking a digital picture of the drawing with the progression of which ever drawn prop or character. Even though everything in the frames was already drawn and styled, some problems were inevitable, if the project was done hastily. For example moving the paper puppet character too fast too soon, translated poorly in to the final project. In addition, if taken to quickly hands and other unnatural items could end up in the final moving image. For the highest-quality result, the student has to consider every frame an individual piece of visual art. Although filming a documentary or making a TV Pilot does not present the same exact obstacles, the same principles are at work. Every frame counts, and putting together every detail of the shot makes the difference. Each shot and angle deserves the thought, focus and concentration of an individual work of visual art.