About my trip!!!

Yeah...

Last time I wrote that soon I'll be going to the Greatest Journey of My Life. My friend Iiris and I will visit 10 cities in 9 countries and film the whole process. And I think I didn't write much more :D

I think it's time for details.

So the cities we will visit (not counting Helsinki, where we start and end our journey, or Riga, where our plane makes a stop), in a chronological order: 

WARSAW -> KRAKOW -> BUDAPEST -> VIENNA -> PRAGUE -> BERLIN -> LUXEMBOURG -> BRUGES -> PARIS -> LONDON

We also visit towns of Oswiecim in Poland and Mont Saint-Michel in France, but they're short day trips. And we travel from Paris to London via small coast towns.
However, in those major cities we will spend 2-3 nights, whole trip taking about 24-28 days.

Like I implied, we will try to stay within a budget. It's not set in stone, but I think it will about 1000 euros. At the moment it seems close to impossible XD. Our plane trips cost about 170 euros. InterRail-ticket cost 260 euros. About 270 euros changed their currency. So, it's already 700 euros, and the trip hasn't even begun, oh my. Remaining 300 should cover our meals + public transportation for 16 days, entrance fees and a ferry trip. I think we won't to make it!

One BIG money saver is that we'll be couch surfing for the most of the trip. OK, we still lack over 50% of needed hosts and hopefully we get 'em soon enough, but still! We haven't couch surfed since never, so another new exciting experience.

That's all I can think of, for now. If you have questions, go ahead and ask them.

J.

One of my favorite newer Bowie songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_KBqoktTl0

About my recent projects and other stuff too

Hello!

So, the end of my first school year of studying screenwriting and visual expression arrives in two weeks. Time has certainly flown quite fast. And it has been a good year. New friends, new skills, new experiences and so on.

Yesterday we finished filming our art history project. Our job was to re-create a piece of art history, but our group of five didn't find a suitably interesting picture to re-create, so we settled on an album cover from the ancient history of 1985.
I directed the film (again) and our team and I did a great job.
Unlike the short film which left something to be desired, "Windows" (as it's currently called) is probably the finest piece of work I've done during the school year. Which is excellent, because it shows I'm getting better and progressing.
Windows resembles story-wise my earlier film projects, and I joked about it being the epic conclusion of my "A Man Goes Crazy in a Small Room" -trilogy.
Next year I hope to do something completely different. Like "A Boy Finds Enlightenment While Fishing in Open Sea" -saga. Hopefully it and Windows will find their way to YouTube.

Exactly after a month, I'll be in Poland. There and in 9 other countries I will film a kind of traveling documentary with a friend of mine, Iiris. Unfortunately the trip begins just as I should be guiding applicants/future students of my subject, but you can't have everything.
I think our TravelDoc emphasizes two parts of the journey: First the cities we plan to visit and their unique history and atmosphere. Both of us realize that being a thousand year old city is most likely more exciting than being a 20 year old student, so we film stuff accordingly.
That being said, the other emphasis is on our journey. About 2 ordinary people traveling to 10 cities in 30 days with 800 euros. What it feels like to be a regular fellow and to travel to a new country almost every other day and to live with people of different cultures. And to do this with limited time and funds.
We're not professional travelers. And that's cool. Because neither are you.

More info about the journey and the TravelDoc will come soon, as the filming will begin just as soon as my school is over.

J.

A new Dave Matthews song! Video is bad, but the audio track is the best I could find.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJbOOUMHIMA&feature=related

About horror

"The horror... The horror..."
- Walter E. Kurtz

Hello there people!

For some time now, the genre of horror has fascinated me. Actually so much so that at the moment, I value it more than any other genre.
You might wonder why. After all horror is represented by crappy sequels with incomprehensible plots where gallons of blood and entrails splatter for no good reason.
Well that's horror, but more in a "THIS IS SO BAD! OH THE HORROR!" -kind of way.

But let's forget all that now, for the moment.

The reason I value horror (both movies and games, not having much experience with horror books) is that it must achieve something difficult to be considered a part of the genre and by default should delve deep into human psyche and engage us both mentally and emotionally.

For horror to be horror, it must terrify us. Like for comedy to be comedic, it must make us laugh. Simple, though not all genres are defined by reactions. These two are more than others.
For example: Action/romantic film is a action/romantic film even if no one is watching. Because it has action/romance in it. But there is no horror on-screen. Murdering and eery shadow movement perhaps, but no horror. Because we give birth to horror. We are the fire, the film/game is merely a spark that ignites it.

What however distinguishes horror from comedy (besides the obvious differences) is that with horror the interaction is even more critical. Because good horror relies on the imagination of the spectator. It teases us, but in the end, we scare ourselves. That's why we're scared long after TV's gone dark. That's why I lost my sleep the other night when thinking of a horror story which involves someone watching you from the dark when you sleep.

Horror can cause emotional reactions so unbelievably strong that it makes even the rational ones completely irrational. Experiencing fictional horror can be even traumatic. What other genre has power of that caliber? (Not that I want to cause trauma to anyone). Of course, violence is often dramatic (especially to those not of appropriate age), and excessive violence is easy way to cause trauma. But to be truly scared of something not happening, well that's a feat.
So instead of frightening by having a murderer jump out of the cupboard, one can also scare people more subtly.
Like, if ordinary things are just a little "off". They're so familiar that they are recognizable, but something is causing unease. The way someone looks at you. Something being there that shouldn't be there.

Oh crap. 

Perfect example of horror done right is Silent Hill games 1 to 3.
I've finished both 2nd and 3rd one once. Only once.
I really like them. They are really well made, with good developer choices been made. And sure want to play them again. So far I just haven't been able.
Playing through both was awesome, yes, but also very, very exhausting. To be on the edge all the time and to be so emotionally invested with the action is draining.
Each time I desire to continue, I remember the exhaustion of going through hell and the heavy burden of survival. I rarely have the strength to go for it.
A horror game so good that it's nearly unplayable for me. How about that.

That's why I value the potential of horror, albeit it's often wasted.

BTW: I stumbled across a good blog about horror games. Check it out if you're into it.
http://www.dreamdawn.com/sh/index.php

J.

Beautiful & creepy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL-X53ze5O0

About loneliness

Hi.

Today started as I had a nightmare where my best friend died (eaten by a dinosaur, but that's beside the point).
After that in my dream I felt a vivid array of sorrowful emotions, like emptiness and aimlessness. Some of the emotions were no doubt caused by (imaginary) death of someone close to you. Like the silencingly heavy burden somewhere between your throat and heart, and the numbness of it all. No one near to me has never died so I can only assume.
But some thoughts and emotions were all too familiar. Like the one where I ask myself: what can I do without the ones that mean to me the most?
I think the idea of being lost without friends is quite a universal one.

My view of the world, existence and humanity is based on a few keystones. Keystones like
"every human is inherently good",
"we should search and strive for truth and harmony"
"only one can truly save oneself",
"a mind should be filled with clarity and not blurred"
"true potential of one's humaneness is only found when with others".
Thus my inner world is not one concrete idea, but rather a web of multiple ones that somehow try to live in harmony with each other. I bet that's like it with most of us.
Some of the ideas are in conflict by nature: At the same time I truly think that we should be independent and autonomous, but also I realize that we can never be, that our need for others is as fundamental as our need to be free of others.

That dinosaur feeding friend of mine and I once had conversation that touched on similar themes. We thought about where we would like to be in future. She painted a life where she is a master of arts, her future filled with empty canvases, buckets brimming with paint and the will to fill the world with beauty and art.
I could not imagine at the time what I would do. I imagined for who I'd be doing it. I didn't know who she was, but she made me happy and gave me a reason to march forward through life's hardships.
My friend wondered this. "Is it not better to find happiness within oneself?", she asked. "If other people can make you happy, they can also make you unhappy. And your happiness should not dependent be on quirks of other people". She made a valid point.
I remember how I back then wished to go traveling around the globe. To find my place in this weird world, but more like a mental place. A home. A place in someone's arms, surrounded by caring eyes of friends.

Some time after that I found Buddhist ideas. I haven't been a good Buddhist recently, mind you, failing to find time to meditate, but I still value their thoughts highly. That all misery and pain in one's life is caused by craving.
And what's a greater craving than the craving to be loved as you are?
What causes more miserableness than the though that you are worthless? Like the Donald Duck comic where he wishes he never existed, as everyone would be better off that way.
What's a greater hole in one's soul than the one that can only be filled by love and care of other person?
What's greater strength than the one found in a group where you feel you belong?

Perhaps a man should be an island, an island of fortitude.
As Simon and Garfunkel have sung it:
"and rock feels no pain; and island never cries".
That I have tried to achieve since the age of ten. In the age of fifteen I realized how much I needed and wanted other people. Thus the conflict, the battle began. Where one part of me just wanted to be beyond the glass wall I once built between me and others.

For the last year so I thought I started to be above that. I felt no lonesomeness. Perhaps I had found a place of my own, one could hope.
But lately, I've felt alone.

Perhaps it's a battle never to be won. Perhaps we should just stand upright against the sea of emotional weight and gusts of hurt. When the world rages around you like a storm, and the night seems too dark too see past, we could just stand laconically in the midst of it.
Like an island.


J.


Another song from Bob.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg-CIka1L4A

About shooting our short film

Hello!

Last weekend we finished filming our short film. The process was a bit harder than I thought (even though I consider myself a realist) and I definitely learned something. Of course, there's stuff I'd like to have done better, but then again this is our first short film (not counting the silent one), so guess I'm still learning. But I'm still somewhat satisfied.

During the first day only we shot about 40% of the film. We were still a bit stiff and had some troubles with lighting, but thankfully we improved later.
That day's length was... well... it was too damn lengthy, okay? About 14 hours. We filmed our movie's longest scene and had to move to another set at the evening for another scene. We had one of our actors just for this day, and thus had to shoot all of his scenes that day, although that wasn't the plan. After all that we all were very tired, but had to wake up at 6 A.M. for another shooting session, as one of our actors had to leave early and we had to shoot all her scenes before that.

During the second day we still had slight troubles with lighting, but otherwise everything went better than the day before. A lengthy day, but not as unbearable as the first one.

During the third day we shot outside of the familiar apartment were we had shot almost all the earlier scenes. We moved to a local cafe before it opened, but failed to shoot everything we needed before customers began to rush in and ruin shots :P. Instead we decided to leave and film 4th day's scenes early.

During the fourth day we returned to the cafe and filmed all we needed to and re-filmed some earlier scenes. We shot the movie's first scene for last (we shot almost everything in reverse order, as it was easier to shave a beard than to wait for the main actor to grow one)

Everyday was shorter than the one before, picture quality was better and everything went smoother than it previously had. Except for relations, as we had some tension within our crew, but I can't talk about in detail in a public forum like this.

After every day we looked through the material we had filmed and investigated whether we had to re-film scenes. And usually we had to, but that was expected, as there's always something one fails to notice in the situation. Unfortunately there's also limitations on what can be re-filmed and what cannot as actors come and go, they alter their physical appearance (shave their beard, etc.), and the set transforms irreversibly.
I'm a perfectionist and I shot a few scenes again and again (up to 9 times, until I was satisfied or someone convinced me to stop). There were some scenes I wanted to shoot again, but unfortunately for the reasons stated above or because of lack of time, couldn't.

Equipment worked as it should have, and the time I spent practicing definitely didn't go to waste in that regard. There were many scenes we couldn't practice, but they went surprisingly well.

In the end, within 4 days we worked somewhere between 30-40 hours. We shot exactly 300 takes and material for about 40 GB. For that reason we shot SD instead of HD, as high definition would have required about six times more space, which we couldn't reasonably spare.
We filmed a lot more material than we'd need, but it's better that way, because few things are worse in the editing table than not having enough material to work with.
Unfortunately editing is not my job in this project. I'd like to, as I love editing, but no can do mister.

It's up to the editor now, but I think we filmed a decent flick.

Sorry if the text isn't as good as in previous posts, and I think I forgot a lot that I was supposed to mention, but I'm tired as I came from fitness boxing.
I'm not sure what I'll write about next time, but I have some ideas. Until then.

J.

Today I listened this song for a first time in a long while:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=modXbqbsAvs

About my brand new home and our short film project (it continues!)

Howdy!

It's been a while. It's been a busy time in school, so I've been too tired to write anything comprehensible. I tried, though, but it grew and grew in length, and it's still a humongous monster in a desperate need of trimming and thus unpublishable. Perhaps sometime in the future...

Well, where does my time go?

A few weeks ago, just before my winter vacation, I moved to a new apartment. I ditched the student dormitory in favor of a apartment all my own. It's a bit further than my old one (5-8 minutes to school now, instead of 15 seconds. Still, not bad). Apartment is a lot bigger, but only 10 euros costlier. Right next to main street. I like it, but I'd like it more if it wouldn't be so messy as I've yet to unpack some of my stuff and haven't really found a place for them. My room at my parent's house is now completely empty as they brought all of my stuff here. All of my stuff. That means a lot of stuff. :P

I visited Netherlands! I went to see my sister there. Nice trip, but I'll talk about it more in some future entry. Possibly with pictures.

What takes most of my time, is, unsurprisingly school. Especially the short film project (which still travels with its working title, which roughly translates to "Then We Lived"). After a long pre-production phase, we finally start shooting next week! Exciting!

The storyboard phase was awfully arduous. Let me explain: It was useful and even required. But it took lots of man hours to do.
First version I did with PowerPoint. 150 pictures, all drawn with it. Very simple style.
The next version I photographed. It took several photo sessions with other crew members standing in for the actors. Perhaps 200 pics and 50 videos. Then we heard some feedback from our camera teacher and our screenwriting teacher, and I re-did about 30% of the storyboard. I had some trouble with finding a suitable program to arrange the photos with (and to write all the required info). I decided to use Celtx.
The final product was so enormous, that I couldn't send it to anyone via internet, even with all the zipping. I didn't have printer at the time and our school printers didn't support Celtx-format and I couldn't convert it to, let's say, PDF. I worked 6 hours, just to get the finished product out. In the end, we used memory stick and a friend's printer. The whole storyboard took at least 50 hours of work. A lot, I think.

We've been practicing for the last few weeks and I feel carefully hopeful.
All of my more innovative camera angles have worked well, though some of the scenes they featured in, got cut, and I have more confidence working with the camera (though I still tend to forget to measure the white balance so that the colors show correctly...). I've used gadgets like glide-cam and camera rig, successfully. We even improvised a snorri-cam!
We have the actors, we have the set. There's still a few areas where everything can go wrong, but let's hope for the best.

J.

My favorite song of theirs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBa9PJjqm0Q

About studying different courses in SWAVE, part 3

Hey! You, reader! Yes, you! The one behind the window! I can see you...! Now, get out of there!

Before dwelling into endless depths of our short film production, I decided to tell you about the courses still to come. Of course, I can't really tell that much about stuff I've yet to experience. However, I do have the names of all the courses, and short descriptions. I'll let you know about them, and then we can together imagine what it will be like :).

By the way, I found the official English translations for the course names. Although in some cases my translations were more accurate, I decided to change every name to its official one. Even in the earlier posts.

Color theory
Okay... Apparently we're learning how colors have been used in art throughout history and what attributes they possess.

Drama and history of moving picture
Yes! We do have history of cinema! That's great. Of course, I've already been in 3 courses about history of cinema, but then again, now I can show off my intelligence in the subject matter ;).

Direction, set decoration and costume design
Hmmm... Seems more like a play sort of thing. Definitely useful, probably fun too.
One of my favorite directors, Sir Ridley Scott, started his career as a set designer, and it shows too, as an incredible amount of background detail in his films. That alone is a reason enough for me to be interested of this course.

Corporate and TV-production
Apparently this is more about how productions work in reality. A bit boresome, maybe, but useful.

Contract and copyrights
Yes. One of the most useful courses there is. Also known as "How not to get screwed over".

Printed advertising and photography
Graphic design and photographing, making posters and ads. Yes, I could definitely like this.

Editorial and news work
While in high school, I took some journalism courses. This is probably pretty much same, except more emphasis on video production part. Not too bad, I think.

Digital post-production
Both 2D and 3D, special effects, working with green/blue screen. I'll like this one.

3D-animation / Flash animation / 3D-modeling
The name says it. Three different courses, but in the same territory. Could be nice, depending on how hard the whole process is.

Theory of documentary
Yes, I'll like this one, as I'm quite interested about working on documentaries, and I'm considering making one as my bachelor's thesis.

Music video project
Many people start their careers from the realm of music videos, so no doubt it's useful. Just have to be ambitious and creative here.

...

Like I said in one of my earliest posts, SWAVE is huge and vast, and it truly is. We learn a little from almost anything you can do in the biz these days. So employment shouldn't be a problem.
Of course, there's a lot of other courses too, but I just stuck with the more interesting and differing ones. Many continuation courses (like "computer graphics 2" or "technique of editing 2") and so on.

Hope you have now a better idea what I do, or I'm about to do, in my school. Until next time.

J.

Sometimes cover songs just differ a lot from the original.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxHIVxz1K5M

About studying different courses in SWAVE, part 2

Heypodeydey!

Last time I wrote to you about all the different courses I study here. Well, not all of them, just half. This time I shall tell you about the latter half, involving all the courses with creative output.

Dramaturgy and scriptwriting
You can probably guess what we do here. In this course, we wrote our first scripts and received feedback on them. And based on the feedback, wrote the sript again. And again. But I enjoyed it. We also dwelled on the basics of writing a good sript, form of the script, and watched lot o' movies paying attention to the scriptwriting, what works and what doesn't.

Dramaturgy of space, form and environment
In this course we focused of visual storytelling, and how space, form and colours affect our perception of the movie. We viewed how diffent movies have used these tools to create certain emotions and what environments evoke which emotions (for example, ocean has been traditionally seen as a metaphor for freedom or longing of freedom). We also had to make a presentation about visuals of a certain movie with a distinct visual style. The test was similar.

Basics of sound
I'm not sure whether the name translates into "basics of audio" or "basics of sound". But you get the point, I presume. We studied how audio is created in a video production, and briefly learned about different kinds of microphones to record sound. We also had to create an audio to a commercial from scratch.

Computer graphics
Though the name is fancy, it's just fundamentals: what's the difference between vector and bitmap graphics, what image altering software there is, how they differ, and how each one works. Rudimentary ("what is resolution?"), but necessary I suppose, for us to be on the same level. Later we jumped into possibilities of Photoshop and worked with it. Interesting course nevertheless.

Camera and lighting technique
If there's a course that's the backbone of everything else, it's this one. One of the most useful courses too. We learned about different video cameras and how they work, lighting, focal length, formats, visual composition and so on. Much to learn.
All in all, 101 of visual storytelling. How to film and how not to. Plenty of Powerpoints, but still very practical course, and very important one. In this course we also made the silent films I have talked about.

Technique of editing
A continuation from the last one, this time emphasis being on editing. Of all the editing software out there, we mainly learned how to use Final Cut. I enjoy editing very much, it kind of combines scientific accuracy with artistic freedom. Like the previous course: mostly just lectures, but still very practical and important course. We also re-cut a few movie scenes.

Webmedia
We are currently attending to this course, so my knowledge is still lacking. So far, we've learned about basics of code and how to create web pages and all the stuff with it, like links. Seems interesting.

Basics of audiovisual production
This course is very closely linked to the production of our short film. So far as to not having classes to give us more time to do it. When they are held, they're mostly about counseling us and keeping track of our progress. Early on, we did have some lectures on how these things are made in the big world.

Shooting
Read above :P.

Post-production
So far we barely scratched the surface in this course. But it's supposedly about all the post-processing stuff that happens with or after editing. Like color correction.
A kind of editing course 2.0, I presume. Except we have a true "editing technique 2" coming up...

Visual narration and visual expression
Like with internet media and post-production, it's hard to grasp the big picture at this stage. So far we have watched earlier student projects and films and discussed about their visual solutions, what worked and what did not. All meant to help us with our short films.

...
Phew.

I think that's that as for now.
Our camera teacher and our dramaturgy teacher, who both teach several courses, have a habit of mixing up courses. Thus afterwards it's hard to remember what they did where and when.
My list also doesn't tell how much they are educating us:
we had "computer generated graphics" or "basics of audio" once a week, but at the same time, we could have "camera and lighting technique" as much as four times a week = every schoolday.

Next time I'll either write about the courses still to come, or about our short film which has advanced considerably lately. Til then.

J.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuOPRfq-q6U&ob=av3n

About studying different courses in SWAVE, part 1

Heyo!

I think I should have written a post like this a long time ago. After all, studying screenwriting and visual expression (= SWAVE) is half of what this blog is all about. I did write something about it, as my second post ever, but it was more of a overview. But now I have studied here for six months, and I have enough experience to tell you what it's really like.
Instead of writing of what my average day is like, I'll tell you about all the different subjects/courses that I have studied so far. I think it gives you pretty good idea of studying SWAVE, minus, of course, all the after school stuff.
So, if you have ever wondered what's included in studying SWAVE, and what it means in practice, read on.
(By the way, I like how the word "studying" has the word "dying" in it :D)

Overall, there's 65 different mandatory courses in SWAVE, and our days here mostly consists of these. Of course there's also plenty of optional courses as well and different student projects.
Of those 65 mandatory courses, I have studied, or am currently studying 20. Not counting the orienting studies here.
I'll start with the less exciting ones, that surround the actual creative process without taking part in it. Without any strict order:

English & Swedish
First, language studies. It's mostly like what you think it's like. Except more new words and less grammar. Last week we had to discuss and analyze a short film in Swedish, which I think was rather useful, although hard. Lot of homework and doing essays independently. Speaking language in question, of course.
The necessity of English is obvious (especially in the showbiz), but if you're from abroad and wondering the Swedish: as citizens of Finland, we are obliged to somewhat study our second official language, Swedish, as well as Finnish. It's a small thorn on the side of every non-bilingual Finnish student, and waste of resources, but that's another (long) story.

Business accounting
A bit boresome, unfortunately. Basically learning how to account and where to place credits and debits. Early on a lot of emphasis of how The Law requires double entry bookkeeping system from each company and corporation. After all, school encourages us to become entrepreneurs.

Mathematics
Recap from high school. How to calculate taxes, inflation, etc. So, more practical calculations than earlier, thankfully. Not too hard by itself, but we had to learn how to calculate using only Excel, which caused some difficulties earlier. No paper, no calculator, only Excel. Because that's modern times, apparently.
I'm not arguing against that, though, because there has been some teachers who would like you to calculate everything with only your head and perhaps an abacus.

Information technique
Nice name, but it only means making word and excel files. We have made CVs, job applications, grocery lists and whatnot. Too easy. Good thing is that once you're finished, you can leave, and so every class ends at least an hour ahead of schedule.

Communication skills
How to communicate within a group. How to have a meeting. How people communicate. How to perform in front of an audience. Form of teaching is lecture, so a little of that university feel there. There were some theory about communication in a more abstract level, but cannot recall any particulars. Oh well. A bit silly subject.
A few presentations have been made and are to be made. Next one of mine will be a week from now. I'll have it about a theory of Mr. Michel Foucault. Let's see how it goes.

Information acquisition skills
This course was one big essay. First we prepared for the essay by learning how to use school's own database and how to, obviously, seek information from it. Then we wrote a ten to twelve page essay. Mine was about alternative screenwriting. And man, it was hard work. The essay itself is a sort of practice for the literary part of our thesis.

Marketing communication
How to market your product, and to whom. Public relations, and so forth.
Lecturing and theory. Not a lot of practical exercises, which was a bit surprising.
We were to upkeep a blog during the course, which, I admit, was a nice touch.

Art history
As I write this, we've had only one class of art history. So, my thoughts about the course are subject to change. But as it seems, we go through European art history, from prehistory to modern times. Probably, mostly just lectures and Powerpoints. We'll watch a few films and look at art, analyze it and try to be inspired by it. We'll do presentations of a art era and "modernize" a piece of art. Sounds interesting.

The length of this post grows and grows. So, next time I'll write about the more appealing courses, the ones that actually involve a exciting creative process. Like screenwriting ;). Stay tuned.

J.

Those songs that you already own, but are under your radar for a long time, until you discover them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D6k3LKeMA0

About art and other stuff too

Hi!

Yesterday started my class of art history. Though it remains somewhat fascinating subject (at least more so than mathematics or economics), it's also a bit of a disappointment. Two reasons for that:

#1 It's mostly history of paintings. Paintings (and much, much later, photographs) are, of course, a significant part of visual expression (which we study), but I'd have hoped for history of cinema to go along with it.
I did study a few courses of history of cinema while I was at open university, and I found it exciting.
I think that studying it would have benefited us as much as studying history of paintings.

#2 It's art history of Europe. Mostly. Okay, we live in Europe, but still. They have taught this to us before. We all are familiar with the Baroque and the Rococo and the Renaissance. Can't we be inspired by Japanese, Indian or Chinese art? Or why won't we study the Australian Aboriginal art, when study similar cave art in Europe nonetheless? Oh, Eurocentrism... The things we lose for you.

Anyway. We discussed a little about art. What is art, and so on. We all been through that conversation many times. But I thought I'd share some of my ideas.

It's often said that art is something that creates emotional response with the viewer. Or it's something that makes you think. But stirring emotions or delivering information is not enough, because almost anything can do that:
One can throw a bible in a toilet. You see it, and think "oh, there's a bible in the toilet". But is it art now? No, it's not.
Someone could throw a puppy in the oven, and then take a picture of it. Sure, looking at the puppy in the oven does make you sad. But it only makes you emotionally responsive person. Is the puppy in the oven a piece of art? No. It's a puppy in the oven. Take it off there!
Almost anything can create emotions or thoughts because we humans are feeling and thinking beings. But it's not enough to make to make something art. Existence of a reaction doesn't make the act an art form.

I think that neither is art a object. Not a single painting, film, book, cd or sculpture is art.
People nowadays easily qualify themselves as artists, if they happen to write a novel, or draw a picture, or sing well. And we know why. Being an artist does give one some glamour and prestige.

During the Middle Ages, some really beautiful and fine mosaics, sculptures and paintings were created. Like the one on the left. Surely a fine piece of work like that was created by an artist?
No. At least that's what they thought.
They weren't artists.
They were artisans. Craftsmen.
And they did handicraft, not art.

Ok. Saying that a sculpture like that is handicraft is a bit of a understatement. But the point is still there.
Artists create stuff. Painters and writers are on a same level as carpenters.
Object doesn't become art when it's inside a museum, nor when it's hung on the wall. It becomes a showpiece.

"Impression: Sunrise" by Monet. Beautiful painting, not art. 

Ok. What then is art?
I think that art is an experience. It's art if I watch it and get "the art experience" out of it.
It's something in between the object and the viewer, but is in neither. Art is a relationship.
I believe it's a bit like catharsis, but not as finished. If catharsis is a finished emotional state, "art experience" is something that ignites the process, and allows catharsis to happen. It's like a little enlightenment.
It's not a single emotion, nor a single idea. It's something greater and only barely perceivable by a mere human in a universe of astonishing beauty. It's what makes us grow towards good as persons.
But it's not a explosion in consciousness. It's a slow, peaceful opening of a door.
Our reactions to it differ. Some cry, others smile.

But if a object creates this art experience, does it make that object an art? Perhaps as individual perceives it. But there's no universal art.
To me, Mona Lisa isn't art. Experts have sold it to the world as the poster child of art, and perhaps that's what stopped it for ever being art for me.
Sure...
It's beautiful.
It's well made.
It's unique.
It has historical value.
But we have to separate beauty, fine craftsmanship, individuality and historical weight from art. They can be a part of artwork, but none of them makes an object art. There's a tons of great songs

Thus, "artist" should be regarded as a honorary title bestowed to few.
Bestowed by individual humans. Not by organisations. Not by experts and not by history. Not by the artist herself.

Today, I'm a mere artisan. But perhaps someday, to someone, I'm an artist.

J.

I heard that Bruce Springsteen will be touring in Finland. Hurrah! Springsteen's earlier show in the summer of '08 is the best gig I've ever been in.
Springsteen has had a huge influence on me. Rarely I've seen or heard art. Perhaps 15 times in my whole life. Here is two of Springsteen's three songs which I can recognize doubtless as works of art. Such a impact they've had in me.
Thunder Road:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJBYWgfIXdw&feature=plcp&context=C3cde139UDOEgsToPDskKU-RCbvFaiF5vvv_b4GlK-
Racing in the Street:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZTQc0-d5lA&feature=plcp&context=C31e4d51UDOEgsToPDskLG8mz71rhO3kL6Shn1orQ0

About Exodus, our silent film project

Hello readers!

In the past posts I've mentioned that I've been working on silent film as a part of our studies.
Actually, a few weeks ago I wrote this:
"Our silent film project, which our crew started months ago, has been finished and publicly viewed. It was great and it got great feedback. Among the best, hands down."
I promised to you that I shall write more about making of this film. And here I go.

Our first practical assignment (after some theoretical studies) had indeed been to make a short silent film, to give us understanding on how things work in practice. Our first approach towards making visual productions. Our camera and lighting teacher insisted that those films should be completely understandable without sound (which presented challenges to some groups), and they shouldn't be more than 2-3 minutes long. Otherwise there were no restrictions or supervision. Group members were selected in random.

After a short brainstorming within my group, we settled on an idea of mine about a man who's trapped in a room. But it was my co-workers, A and L, who came up with the idea of this worst-case-of-morning-after-scenario. I was a bit conservative, as I'd harbored my idea for some time, and I always saw it as a sort of tragedy. But their idea had more potential, and I bent. Style of the result is something of a tragicomic.

We finished the script in a few days and soon started filming, and were first group to do so. Our work distribution went so that I directed and edited, A acted and L shot the film.
Our silent film took place almost entirely in a bathroom and we used L's bathroom for it. The place presented some challenges with its tightness. Bathroom was about 2 meters wide and 3 meters long. And into that space we had to fit a camera and its stand, two to three lights with their respective stands, props, actor and camerawoman, and only the actor could be seen in the shot.
What that meant in practice was, that every time I wanted L to shoot from a different angle, we had to move everything to create sufficient room for the camera in its new location.
Every effin' time.
Good thing we decided early on to shoot every scene first from one side, and then the next day from the other, to reduce the unnecessary work to its minimum. Third day of shooting was for supplemental shots.

The highlight of the movie was to be a montage (not the soviet one). First I imagined it to be from a single angle, but in the end we did it from three different ones. The montage was a great success.

In the end, the shootings came together quite nicely. Sure there we some troubles. We had to shoot many scenes again and again until I was satisfied, and the bathroom setting was a bit challenging with the ceramic tiles and reflecting glare. We broke one lamp, and had to wait for some time for a correct weather for the only outdoors shot. Of course the camera's memory card run out in the middle of the shooting. And as said, we had to move all the equipment every time we moved the camera.
But those were minor complaints. Things could have gone much worse. Our team worked together better than I could have hoped for. We finished sooner than other groups had started.

Then came the editing. The part of the movie making I had waited the most. I had done some editing earlier during high school, and fell in love with it. But the editing part was also the hardest. Part of the fault goes to our schedules. We finished shooting so early, that many parts of the editing process was still to be taught. And I was too impatient to wait for others.
For example, we had a ton of material to work with, which is ideal. But I didn't know how to tag or color code material. So, when I wanted to find a specific shot, I either had to rely on my memory, or to scroll through everything we had filmed.
The editing process took longer than the filming. We filmed Exodus within three days, all together about 7-8 hours of work (a lot for a 2-3 minute film). I edited it for more than 10 hours. Partly because I didn't know "the fast way", partly because I am a perfectionist.
A large chunk of time went to color correction. Another thing that was still to be taught, but our Exodus desperately needed color correction, as some shots were very yellowish, others more greenish. So I self-learned how to correct colors, and did it. Yet again, my way wasn't the most efficient or the most accurate, but it eventually got the job done.

I had to slow down, speed up, mix, match and create mirror images of some of the shots, but finally the work was done and I was satisfied. The running time vastly exceeded the instructed 2-3 minutes: Exodus still is 5.5 minutes long.
I thought the title to be "Exit", but A came up with "Exodus", which was so pompous and grand and biblical that we had to choose it. When naming our characters for the credits, A and me came up with another Bible reference, which basically made to whole film into a Bible adaption. Which is funny because earlier when someone asked me what the film was about, I said that we were making a movie version of the Bible.
(Like this: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060164/)

Anyway, Exodus was successful. Our teacher liked it very much, and it was among the better silent films our class made.

I think we are supposed to make audio to the flick in the future, but that's yet to pass. I let you know about that process as well.

J.

And here's the silent film itself. I give you... our first silent film... Exodus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0_rhIgUhfw

About my Christmas holidays

Hello there! Long time, no see!

It's been about a month since I last published anything. I was supposed to write something, but my Christmas holidays have been a bit busy. Soon I will publish a post about our silent film project, Exodus, but in a meantime, I'll tell you a bit about how I've spent my time in the past month or so. Not that I expect you to be interested, but it's a little something something to keep the easily bored ones occupied.

So yeah. I've had quite long Christmas vacation, almost three and a half weeks.
First week I spent in Helsinki. I was supposed to take it easy, but I actually did much work regarding to Protu's 2nd winter camp. Sometimes I planned and wrote stuff for ten hours straight. There went the relaxation.
Then our whole family traveled to our little cabin to spend Christmas there. Like the good old days, though I'm not really a Christmas person. Lots o' nice presents: like external hard drive and Metro 2033 -book and money. It was all good, until a huge storm cut off the electricity.
Straight from our cabin I went to the camp.  I enjoyed it very much and it was worth all the stress. I had high hopes, it didn't meet them all, but one of my better camps nevertheless. But I got sick around the half way point, and lost my voice for five days. Not so nice :(.
Now the last week I've spent recovering and relaxing. Played a lot of Metallica with my electric guitar.
I'm planning to go InterRailing the next summer, and I have this over ambitious idea about it. I won't reveal anything more now, but I shall when the time comes.

But that's it for now. Intermission is over. I'm still in Helsinki but shall depart for Virrat tomorrow. A new period is starting and new subjects as well, like "post-production" and "art history". Oh god, I can't believe I study something this cool!

Next time... Exodus...

J.

Hang the DJ.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyJdiE0l23c&ob=av2n