Storyboards

Source Update

I have done some slight tweaking to my source. My new source is the Western Diet. I still think the common thread between my original sources is "improvement," but I want to be more specific. It is a Western concept of improvement. It is the idea the bigger is better. More is better. Faster is better. Cheaper is better. Newer is better. In terms of food that means, tastier meals, bigger meals, quicker meals. It does not necessarily mean quality ingredients, grown by hand, and then prepared for a feast with your family. It means food that will satisfy you immediately. Americans want more for less. We want our health and nutrition to come in a bottle of pills or an energy shake rather than fruits, vegetables and exercise. I am interested in the quick fix. "Dinner" bought from a gas station. Food that is brighter, than any other natural growing fruit or vegetable even though the majority of its ingredients come from corn. These foods are not grown in fields, but created in labs and factories. It is a very lucrative business and is therefor very competitive. They're not growing corn, they're growing money.

5 sources

Agribusiness- Corn! and its inevitable appearance in everything we eat, its incredible influence on farmers across the country and even the cars that we drive. I will use the basic construction of the all-American cheeseburger, our most humble backyard delight, to show how too much corn, is a bad thing.

Nutrition- the Western diet is based around speed. So are our health goals. We like our nutrition in pill form, or a quick drink, or both, if its easier that way. Its about convenience more than anything else. If it were healthy for us to be overweight, we would be.

Competition- Its all connected!!! Big business buys out all the small farmers so they can rehire them to work their very own land but to grow only what they're told. The farms yield more, but the quality of the product goes down. They grow a lot of corn! (for the record, I love eating corn) Corn is in everything we eat, usually as a form of sugar. Sugar sells. We like sweet things. Its easy to package and delicious to eat. You can find it anywhere. Commercial America loves it. I will portray a man counting cheese curls (made from corn), one at a time, as if he were counting gold bricks.

Convenience- Fast food in general. Not necessarily McDonalds, etc., but literal fast food. Food that is cheap and can be found anywhere, anytime (even after a nuclear bomb explosion - Twinkies). This food is about instant gratification.

Food Science/Engineering- The food industry needs new foods to make new money. So why not invent them ourselves! We now engineer (like, in a lab) vegetables with vitamins they never had before. We spray with pesticides to kill insects and disease while creating entirely new species. We tamper with food.

recording experience/tech recitation/readings

My recording experience was alright considering I've never made a video before. Video/Computers in general are really out of my comfort zone. Im more of a materials guy. After playing around with the camera and searching through the menu on my own, i got the hang of it. I learn much more when I do it myself. I did however, get frustrated with my recording conditions. It just wasn't the right environment for what i wanted to portray. It would be nice to have a Hollywood budget and be able to record on a set/studio or in a vacuum. . That being said, I think I recorded some ideas which speak to my sources. I definitely appreciate video/film much more after this experience.

I was home sick with the flu all of last week so I missed the tech recitation. However, I sat in on Sarah Bapst's class on Tuesday evening. The tech recitation was very helpful. Its nice to have someone there to guide you through the basics. And even though I didn't understand everything all at once, it was nice to have a familiarity with FCE for when I went back to work on my own.

I thought the reading was informative. This book reads like a survey class - a little bit of everything. I think its very useful to have when working on a specific project. Its important to know the language you are using in your art. As an abstract painter, non-narrative work comes easily. Or, at least I have an understanding of how to approach it. Narrative work is fairly simple. I think of it as process, like building a sandwich.

New Source

For my final source I am sticking to food science/industry/agribusiness. After reviewing my other sources I realize that they are all connected through the idea of “improvement.” I am interested in the food we chose to eat and how it gets to our plate. I am interested in food because it is something that we consume for nourishment, much like the way we consume art for intellectual, sensory nourishment. Food is manipulated, both physically for the sake of appearance and chemically for the sake of health benefits, commercial incentives and or shelf life. Whether it is basic produce, the all American cheeseburger, or a Twinkie, what we consume is sprayed, injected, treated, and/or processed for improvement. I am interested in the quest of the West to grow, breed, and invent bigger, brighter, "better" foods at a faster pace and for a cheaper price. I feel like our food is being taken out of the soil rich hands of local farmers and into the rubber gloved hands of mad scientists and cold steel machinery of laboratories backed by the fat wallets of commercial America. The sounds I will investigate and record will represent the kitchen, the lab, and the factory. They will hopefully be abstract enough to be used as atmosphere but also recognizable enough so that the listener (viewer) can relate them to his/her own food/agriculture experience. For example, popping popcorn out of context is an abstract sound but when applied to my movie will reference the corn industry and its influence on and presence in virtually everything we eat.

popcorn popping

running motor

microwave

ding of toaster oven

bubbling water

hum of air vent

car wash

snap of rubber gloves

bunsen burner

scraping metal

pills rattling

mortar and pestel grinding

blender

Reading Response

Launching the Imagination

I have always enjoyed watching movies, but have never really been interested in making films/videos so I was very apprehensive about this reading assignment. I felt overwhelmed by the vocabulary and a bit defensive to let it sink in. I realize this language is vital to talking about filmmaking and will be more relevant once i actually start storyboarding but overall, i found it a bit boring. It did however, make me think about how any great artist must make great decisions. Every element of every frame of a film must be considered. I enjoyed looking at the Poussin painting, The Rape of Sabine Women, in the discussion of scope and I think the section Schindler's List: Content and Composition was actually very helpful and resonated with me more from a painter's perspective than anything else.

Source

Food chemistry/food industry/agri-business

I am interested in the food we chose to eat and how it gets to our plate. Whether its basic produce, the all American cheeseburger, or a Twinkie, what we consume is sprayed, injected, treated, and/or processed. I am interested in the quest of the West to grow, breed, and invent bigger, brighter, "better" foods at a faster pace and for a cheaper price. I feel like our food is being taken out of the soil rich hands of local farmers and into the rubber gloved hands of mad scientists and cold steel machinery of laboratories.

motor (car motor)

humming air vent

ding of timer (toaster oven)

conveyer belt (car wash?)

snap of rubber gloves

sizzle of bacon

searing of meat

beeping of microwave

"its alive!"

cows mooing

chickens clucking

popcorn popping (referencing corn industry)

Sports/competition

I am interested in the idea of the ideal, in particular, the goal of the athlete to be the biggest, the fastest, the strongest- the best. I am also interested in the ritual of sport and its role in contemporary America. As well as baseball's steroid scandal and its effect on "America's favorite pastime."

marching

cheering

drumming

chanting

heavy breathing

heart beat

trumpets

whistles

horns

sneakers squeaking

"swish"

pills rattling

Vices/pleasure/instant gratification

I am interested in pleasure and hedonism but only in terms of instant gratification. The quick fix. I am interested in how art can be a vice (?) in the way it effects the senses, like a drug.

rattling pills

inhaling

exhaling

water boiling

bong bubbling

lighting a match

gulping

moaning

foot tapping

scratching

ice cubes

bacon frying (fat, sugar, salt)