Notes on My Final Video

I just finished the final edit of my final project video.  Just having some thoughts on how it turned out…. I’m not entirely sure I “like” the final version as much as I did the draft I did for midterm, but this may be because I’m still entirely too close to it, and can’t see the forest for the trees.    This version is 12 minutes long, more than twice the length of the original.  The biggest question I faced when expanding it was whether I would go “wider” (meaning I would add several new events, new quotes, new characters, etc.) or whether I should go “deeper” (use the original as a framework, but explore each of the topics in more detail, explore layers of meaning for each section).  I opted for the latter, “deeper” approach, mainly because I felt the original narrative, while simple, held together pretty well – and I thought there was enough there already to explore.  The exceptions to this are the first section I added about my childhood – which hopefully will clarify more of the stuff about my dad at the end – and the last section which kind of wraps everything up and summarizes what all of this means to me today.  In all the sections, I attempted to do a lot more “layering” – suggest meaning by superimposing images and sounds over each other, or by juxtaposition of images or clips.   I attempted to play with the “comic book style” a bit by applying comic book graphics to tragic events in my life, hopefully adding layers of meaning to both the events AND the style.

I know people will ask me why I didn’t expand on the clowning.  The best answer I can give to that is that I see that part of my life not necessarily as a big ERA, but more as like a turning point – a hinge in my life.  It was a doorway that allowed me to pass from one stage to another, and I’d kind of like to just leave it at that.  Plus, aesthetically I like the way it just kind of sits there silently… it’s own little island.

Finally, regarding the music – Kathleen had suggested that I perhaps find public domain music to use instead of the rock songs I used in the draft.   By doing this, I would be able to “legally” show the film in public venues without having to pay royalties.  I gave this careful consideration, but in the end I chose to stick with music that had been important to me.   Ultimately, I felt doing that would make the film more powerful to me, and thus, to you.  The Monkees (used in the first section) were my favorite band when i was a child, and I used to stand in front of our old stereo console and play the Monkees album over and over and over while playing a toddler’s version of air guitar and pretending I was one of them.  I think the Clash music in the next section speaks for itself – or at least I hope that I have conveyed how important this band was to teenage me.  “Los Angeles” by X was the song that was constantly playing in my head when I lived in LA, and the R.E.M. song definitely symbolizes, to me, the whole period leading up to the death of my father.  I’m not sure if I’m allowed to legally use the Maria Callas recording of ‘Ave Maria’ (which I imagine must be in the Public Domain) but I tried lots of other music for that segment and it’s the only one that fit.  The very last song, however is the one song I did use legally. It’s called “Upside Down Lacrimosa” and is performed by my friend – the lovely and super talented Rebecca Schiffman – which she wrote after being inspired by playing a section of Mozart’s Requiem (“Lacrimosa”) backwards – thus the title.   Not only does the song represent the here and now for me (we’ve been hanging out a lot lately) but she said that since Lacrimosa means sadness, then backwards it must mean happiness.   I love that idea – that all we need to do to achieve happiness is to play the sadness backwards.

I will post the video here after I’ve shown it in class.

Tagged as: Final Project, Hero(ine)s, video