| To see a world in a grain of sand | Either he's dead or my watch has stopped. Groucho Marx | |
| And a heaven in a wild flower | ||
| Hold infinity in the palm of your hand | ||
| And eternity in an hour. | William Blake 1757-1827 |
| To see a world in a grain of sand | Either he's dead or my watch has stopped. Groucho Marx | |
| And a heaven in a wild flower | ||
| Hold infinity in the palm of your hand | ||
| And eternity in an hour. | William Blake 1757-1827 |
VIDEO PRODUCTION
Fall 98 L15-245 (section 1) Pier Marton Mallinckrodt 325 Off.: Mallinckrodt 305 Mondays 1-4 p.m Mon.4-5 p.m./Tues.6-7 p.m. http://artsci.wustl.edu/~marton 935-4055/marton@artsci.wustl.edu This course serves as an introduction to the formal and technical elements of video, with an emphasis on strong content and form. Thus you will be expected to think carefully as to what your subject is and how you approach it. After a couple of group projects, you are to start your own individual piece (outside class time).
As the industry strives to deliver live video on the Web, and the prospect of 500+ channels looms over the horizon, the requirements for producing quality video pieces remain a constant: solid structure, timing, lighting, sound, composition, and content are set to endure as the key ingredients to a successful production. How much attention you give to all those various elements will be a key factor in my assessment of your work.
While learning the basics, you will be encouraged to push the boundaries of the medium. If you intend to be noticed with your work, it will be because you challenged one of the above mentioned categories. To aid in this endeavor, various cutting-edge pieces will be screened.
Most of the grading will be a reflection of your sustained effort and creativity in the production of the assignments (cf. scale sheet). Irregular attendance (with more than two unexcused absences), or repeated lateness will bring down your grade by a full mark. There will be one or two quizzes counting for 15% of the grade. The required textbook for the class is Video Production Handbook by Gerald Millerson, Second Edition. A lab fee will be collected, prior to enrollment.
DATES TO BE CHANGED TO THIS SEMESTER'S!!!!
January 12 Introductions. The camera: how to compose wonderful lies like those of Kertész, Cartier-Bresson, and Winogrand. The basics of video. For next meeting bring the story board for the various ways you could describe how a book went from one room to the next, and after discussion, start taping that transition. Screening: some of my previous students' work. Read chapters 1 & 2.
January 19 Martin Luther King Holiday - no class - What kind of dreams do you have? Will you realize them in video?
January 26 More about the video camera. A time-based medium. The many narrative structures: Powers of Ten by the Eames team (cf. Blake: we all have grains of sand available to us to tell our awesome stories), Black is, Black Ain't ... by Marlon Riggs (gumbo as a form of rich and textured narrative). Videotape during class time (edited in-camera). For Next Week (FNW) bring some elements (at least five) for your final piece, in writing.
February 2 More about structure (thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis). Less is more and other lessons based on economy of means. La Jetée by Chris Marker. Finish videotape of first group project. Editing basics: assemble/insert, linear/non-linear. FNW Chapters 8 & 9., and revise the elements of your final piece, on paper.
February 9 More editing principles: when to cut + the machines. Potemkin revisited by my former editing class. The Gorilla Tapes. When not to cut: Butoh by Eiko and Koma, the power of presence. Editing in-class portions of the first project. Bring assessment of feasibility of final project by bringing some rough storyboard, remember no stick figures!
February 16 Finish editing project. What makes for a strong-middle-end piece? Documentary overview with varying editing styles: Nanook, Man with the Movie Camera, Night Mail, The City.
February 23 Lighting issues: key and fill, how to set the mood. The humor of things: Ernie Kovacs, Bill Wegman, Terry Fox and Der Lauf der Dinge by Fieschli and Weiss.
March 2 Spring Break
March 9 Sound and image: re/manipulations from Hans Jenny's Cymatics to the Situationists. Create a soundtrack that is non-descriptive, yet strong and textured enough to stimulate the imagination.*
March 16 Blinding viewers with sound. Selections from Stalker, Jeanne Dielman, Repulsion, Pickpocket. Bresson's Notes on Cinematography . Color bars, black and headtone.
March 23 Raw footage due. The editing system and its special effects capabilities, how not to indulge in-candy-for-the-eye.
March 30 First editing attempt and more raw footage due.
April 6 Mixing sound and building your soundtrack.
April 13 Individual meetings with works in progress.
April 20 Pre-final edited version.
April 27 Final edited version.
May 4 Final screening and final critique.
* Creating original sounds is an integral part of learning how to work with the potential of sound. The point is not to use canned or instrument- based music, but rather to explore the musicality of sound effects.