3rd Marking Period Blog Post

THIRD MARKING PERIOD CHECKPOINT

For the third marking period, I've been working on the script with Tyler for a short film I wanna direct called 'INDIGOS' that I talked about in my last end of marking period blog post. The film should be around 5-10 minutes long.

Below are screenshots of the script:

Other than working on the script, we finally finished Tragic Endings after many obstacles such as losing footage and moving on to other projects. I also acted in Trevor's final Spookily Kookily film.

Besides that, I've been working on more music and I've picked up FL Studio again and started playing around with it as I intend to use it more frequently.

End of Marking Period 2 Checkpoint

Marking Period 2 

In this marking period Tyler, Trevor, Noah, Garret, Don, and I finally finished shooting our short film about a high schooler played by Tyler and his introduction to a drug as well as his decline into addiction to it due to other high schoolers and dealers played by Trevor and I.

We ran into a variety of problems when shooting this film like cameras being stolen resulting in lost footage, the amount of time it was taking us to film compared to how much shorter we wanted the process to be, as well as issues with audio and typical problems students find themselves facing when filming.

We are now onto editing it and in my opinion that's the more entertaining and satisfactory part of making a film due to the aspect of putting the pieces to the puzzle together in different ways and playing with color correction, as well as after effects when making the visuals distorted and warped for one of our scenes in the film.

As for my solo work I've been writing a script for a short film split into parts that I want to create called INDIGOS following a group of troubled teens with hidden powers that hail from spiritual consciousness and Amethyst crystals, abilities such as third eyes, manipulating energy and elements, and astral projection. I'm not planning to make this a superhero or a vigilante type film, if anything it's more of a coming of age story with comedic elements. Now mostly due to the fact that even though in the script I've written some impractical events or ideas, I might make it more practical when it comes to effects and editing but I've been researching on how to make what I've thought up possible through After Effects, I just need to get more skilled at it.

I've also been working starting to produce music and make beats on my personal time as a hobby, below are a couple of beats that I've made.

End of Marking Period 1 Checkpoint

In this Marking Period, I've been mostly filming a project in a group made up of Don, Tyler, Noah, Garret, Trevor, and I.

We've been working on a film about a High School student and his dark path into drugs and his downwards spiral after he meets two guys and parties with them and then he ends up doing drugs, as well as his friends trying to get him out of it after he's hooked, it's harder to go at a subject like this because of the grey area of what schools allow and don't when it comes to the subject matter, so sometimes we may have to tiptoe around things said or shown but we've pretty much got it figured out as of now.

Here are some pictures of us filming:

As for my individual work, I've been scriptwriting and will soon start filming them and actually going though with them as compared to last year.

For the next marking period I want to finish the film about drug use then start working on shooting for the scripts I wrote.

I also want to incorporate animations into films as well as stop-motion to integrate them to create hybridity in my art.

Music Video Investigation: HUMBLE. - Kendrick Lamar

On April 7th, critically acclaimed rapper Kendrick Lamar dropped a single off his new album DAMN. along with a music video to go with it.

After his last full length project To Pimp A Butterfly in 2015, and a B-Sides album untitled unmastered. in 2016. Kendrick comes back now with a new project called DAMN. and had released HUMBLE. as the first and only single off his album which had dropped on April 14th and already has been praised as Kendrick is now being considered to be one of the best to spit on the mic.


HUMBLE. as a song itself is pretty self explanatory by the title. On the track, Kendrick preaches about being humble, being modest, and how certain people (speculated to be rappers Drake and Big Sean) need to sit down and be humble, to take a step back because Kendrick might be trying to say that they aren't as good compared to him to be so prideful and think so highly of themselves. Kendrick's first couple of songs before DAMN. had been him taking shots and sending warnings to rappers, letting them know that they need to up their game for their popularity or to even compare to him as rappers and lyricists. But in the song, Kendrick also covers being humble in general, also commenting on the use of photoshop in the media and natural beauty, as well as him referring to himself as "the realest after all" while chanting the chorus that preaches and demands people to sit down and be humble.

The music video starts off with the same shot of Kendrick that is on the cover of the single, it's him standing in front of the door and windows of a church with a ray of sunlight shining in on
him, dressed up as a pope, which I honestly think is intended irony considering the song is about being humble, maybe this is also part of Kendrick saying that he's the best out of all current rappers in the game and that they should sit down and not too think so highly of themselves when they aren't the best or near best, continuing the competition the has been a part of Hip-Hop for a long time. He then starts chanting and then begins rapping starting off the video and leading us into the next scene and shot. In this shot Kendrick is shown laying on a table full of money in a birds eye view shot as he shoots money out of a cash money gun and into the camera then a scene of him in what looks to be a hair salon under a blowdrying machine and a sequence of the current and older scenes from before switching between eachother. Then a shot of him riding a bike in a 360 panoramic view, afterwards a shot of him golfing on top of a car in the LA River which pans away from him with what i'm guessing is a crane that was used for this shot. The next shot is Kendrick amongst rows of bald men with their head down as he raps to the camera, but then when the chorus comes in some start rapping along with him. More religious symbolism comes in the next shot when a recreation of The Last Supper with Kendrick sitting in Jesus' spot with his disciples, there's an effect in this part of the video which I really like whien the camera starts moving back and forth for a shake effect.

Overall I really like how this Music video was shot and edited, I usually don't like music videos that are overdone or over edited to be taken too seriously, but when it's done right like this video, it works perfectly.

Text & Image

What is Text and Image?

Text and Image is a style and form of art where both visual aspects and text are combined to convey a certain message and or meaning. Usually, text and image is mostly done when artists are stating their own opinions and certain things such as, political, religious, and any views they want to send a message about. Alot of text and image art usually becomes very influential and infamous in scenes such as street art, music, and fashion.

The example of Text and Image art I will be using is Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger is an artist that hails from New Jersey but made an impact on text and image type of art in the New York City and L.A. street art scene along with "Obey Propaganda" artist Shepard Fairey who would continue to make this type of art influential, she started booming during the late 80's and early 90's. Her art consisted of her opinions and commentary on civil rights issues such as Feminism, one of her most infamous pieces of art "Your Body Is A Battleground"(1989) is about women's reproductive rights and was used during protests and became known for being part of the beginning of post-modern activist art, Which many artists would come to be a part of.

Examples of Barbara Krugers art pieces:

Hybridity in Art

JOEY HOLDER & HYBRIDITY IN ART:

In art, there are many sub-genres and types, hybridity in art is when different types of art making comes together in a combination, a hybridity of art.

One of the artists that partakes in hybridity is Joey Holder, an artist based in the UK, she uses many elements in her art that mesh together to make one big constant mixed melting pot of media.

In an interview with Dazed Digital when asked how she would describe her work she stated "I paint, sculpt, make video, multimedia installations and have numerous blogs and image streams. My work seems to be about how these things are networked together, how they are set in ‘constellation’ – its about the 'tissue' which connects them.

The very 'human' way in which we make sense of the world is to name, structure and hierarchize things, yet these systems are always in flux. In my work I mix elements of biology, nanotechnology and natural history against program interfaces, screen savers and measuring devices. I see no object or substance in a fixed state; everything is always transforming and morphing into something else."

She sculpts, uses film and video, and paints all to mix these elements together in order to make the hybridity she's known for. One way I can describe her art is futuristic naturalism. Like a forest, technology, and LSD, all put into one to create the morphing and transforming pieces of art Joey Holder creates.

I actually enjoy Holder's art a lot because it's very aesthetically enjoyable, it kind of compromises the way you would normally view art because it's so simple, yet so complex. Mixing 3-D and 2-D aspects of art and sometimes even sculptures, it creates the very surreal aspect within art that many fans of contemporary art love. And that is something that shows up in art that uses hybridity a lot because it's so unorthodox and so mixed within the arts. How I might be able to use hybridity within my own art by using music made by me, sculpted clay and the use of video if I ever want to continue stop-motion claymation, as well as incorporating images and audio to create a video or film rather than having to shoot to make a video. Something that also really interested me is the eeriness in Holder's art, the use of colors in some of her art really shows how a different hue or a mix and shade of colors make you feel some type of way and I feel that it's very important to convey the intended feeling to an audience even if art is subjective, and Joey does an awesome job at it.

Themes in Conceptual Film

POLITICS AND SOCIAL ORDER:

In art, themes are very important and crucial when not only differentiating between art but also as a way to see the vision and place artists see and are coming from when putting them in their topics and origin. For example in the theme i'm focusing on, a lot of the contemporary art within the theme of politics and social order focuses on the commentary of politics and society, an artist known for doing this is Barbara Kruger, an east coast conceptual artist, collagist, and activist known for her use of text and image, usually incorporating photos with white over red captions that have social commentary usually through one liners on them. One of her more well known and controversial pieces is the untitled(your body is a battleground) which is of a woman who's face is half a negative image with a caption over the picture that says "your body is a battleground". This artwork focuses on the issue of abortion and women's rights as well as the whole pro-choice/pro-life issue. Kruger compares a woman's body to a battleground as people in society debate over the choices and options woman have  over their bodies and their ability to have services such as abortion, calling out and shaking up the political and social order with commentary through art. The theme of political and social order also transcends into other types of art, in music, especially in genres like hip hop and punk rock where denouncing, resenting, and questioning authority and our social order is encouraged. Notable artists that have done this consist of artists like Public Enemy, N.W.A., PRO ERA, The Sex Pistols, Suicidal Tendencies, Black Flag, and etc. In various films the topic and theme of political and social order is also very present, films like A Clockwork Orange, Soylent Green, Fight Club, V for Vendetta, and many others have heavy use of the ideals concerning political and social order and a lot of symbolism and themes that reflect our own society. In the 21st Century, political and social commentary within art has definitely increased as of late, consciousness and the talk of society's issues has made a comeback even though it never left due to the many events that are happening in this decade. I feel like and I do hope that this theme is one that will always have a big place in the art world, in my eyes the self and social awareness that we express through art is amazing and is something that will always be dope because it brings us closer to being human and being intellectual people within our own system.