2/25 Response

One of the films that seemed to catch my attention the most was "My Parents Read Dreams I Have Had About Them." This may have been becuase of the subjects that were being read about or else the personalities of the characters. Neil Goldberg, who was the author of the dreams, may be responsible for what caught my attention but not all of it. He was responsible for setting up the scene, creating the dreams, and actually getting his parents to sit in front of the camera and read these dreams. This was the majority of the film. To me it seems that the little more subtle details are what caught my attention. Particularly how the characters read the dreams and also how they reacted while their spouse was reading the dreams. I noticed how the mom showed more emotion than the dad did. The moms facial expressions actually changed emotions visibly from happy to sad. The dad seemed to just hide his true emotions and think of something else.

When talking about how much control the artist had in this project, it seems that he was willing to give up control to some extent but not completely. This is because despite putting controlling factors in such as the script and the place the characters were to sit in front of the camera. He allowed his parents to do whatever they wanted to while they read the dreams. They laughed, smiled and they even showed sad emotions as well. This showed how he was willing to give up some of his control in order to get the different natural reactions out of his parents. He did give up control but I think overall he had his parents in the controlled setting that he created and he used this in order to get the emotions out of his parents.

2/18 Response

The films that Althea showed in class were quite interesting. The first film that she showed us with the girl in the forest caught my eye by how the background mixed with the lighting of the character. The background seemed real at first but the lighting on the character seemed unnatural. While I was watching this film I was thinking where this scene could have been shot becuase some of it looked realistic while the characters lighting and a few spots in the background did not.

The film Songstress was an interesting idea of having the girls sing in a natural environment. But as I was watching it I kind of felt uncomfortable during some of the performances. Maybe I just was not used to this type of film or maybe it had to do with the theater like atmosphere we watched it in. I kind of had the feeling that some of the singers should have done a couple takes and picked a better one. In our discussion we talked about exploitation. I didnt think that she was exploiting them since the girls volunteered for the job in the newspaper but maybe they should have worked on some of the details a little more before they filmed.

The next two films she showed I thought were much better A Memory Lasts Forever was a very good idea and it was going well.. until the praying/singing started. Again, I may just not be used to this but I thougt this was a bit unnatural in a film that seemed to be a realistic setting so far. I did like how Althea wrapped up her presentation with Northern. I thought this was her strongest work that she showed that day. I like the symbolism that she used with dead people and dead trees being brought back to life just like the trees they planted. The color and the setting were also very good.