Am I an Artist? Are you an Artist?

I am not sure if I can say I’m an Artist, however I would like to think I should never stop aspiring to be one. Where is an Artist without feeling? If the relation of an intention, through a medium, cannot be felt by at most one person--where is that intention and what good has it done? An Artist to me exists devoted to the striving to invoke or evoke feeling from within a person or from within a static ‘thing’. By whichever means the Artist chooses, his driving purpose is that feeling—from within him or herself, unto the observer. How is a film different from a painting as different from say the feeling of love? When you see a film, when you look at a painting, or when you see glittering whites from squinted eyes and the flash of happiness from within a smile-all from the person you care about—what says to us “masterpiece” or what drives us to seek that medium or event out again? The feeling from it. These feelings are what I get from some of my favorite films. I should only humbly think, and wish, to be able to do the same for someone else. To have the capability of this magnitude—reaching out to someone through a depiction on a screen, is at first thought: impossible. However it would be an impossibility I would like to try and reach. If someone seeks films to find experiences or feelings that may lie dormant within them, then the job of quenching that desire as a life-trade or duty is as priceless as the water from within our springs. I seek to use filmmaking for that purpose.

In TCF 312 I feel the teacher is the first passionate person I have come across in this school with regards to filmmaking and student’s individuality. I think that a mentor of that magnitude can only help, not impede, artistic growth; from which I think we can all spread our legs so to speak. Growth comes from freedom not restriction, and I believe we can only go where we lead ourselves as a result.

Two Extremes of Lighting

The shadow is created here without the glare, or presence, of a sun. It seems to imply there is a sun in the foreground but there is no 'screen presence' of it to be found. In the story I feel the shadow here, that is so isolated, is meant to be ominous and foretelling of a love that will persist through death and that that death will likely be upon the couple soon, since this scene being in a flashback after it happened. Again it is clearly shot in the day but is very soft in its approach. The only sharp object here is the shadow, which is brought out as if separate from the sun. I really like how the attention is drawn not to a light source, but to the dark, shadowy silhouette.

Black and White inherently contains very sharp contrasts between dark and light; but here the bright neon lights act as beacons of attention within this frame. The lights from these buildings almost seem to float in air, as they appear to be dancing within a mass of black night. One of the beauties of this shot is that the main character is robed in all white, almost blinding us, as she walks away from the town that is all but convivial only to ironically be whelmed by the signs that appear to be the only life left in the place.

Edward Hopper painting. I love the sense of solitude here that the couple have within a surrounding black frame--maybe the black of the surrounding neighborhood or the darkness of fields and fields of country. A very realistic look and feel to it almost as if it is a memory etched with a brush. I want to say it looks like the talks on the porch I used to have as a kid. Notice how the only light source is from ceiling though it only lights what is on the porch--nothing else. It's framing it. It feels really simple and salient.

From my tastes, this is about as good as it gets when it comes to color. Yes this is from Bladerunner, which is my favorite movie out there for the shots alone. For color, I really prefer cinematography from the 80's that focused on the dark tenements of cities. There is a quality from those movies that is certainly unique to its time. This shot is obviously not from any tenement, but it is spectacular nonetheless. Aside from being aesthetically pleasing to the eye I like the use of the sun as being the only light source and how it hits the different objects within the room. One thing I really like in this shot is the feeling of space and light. It feels as if we are occupying a hollow, antiseptic room which is whetted by the orange light from the sunset. The pillars seemed to be 'graced' by light, as if they are looking up to the sun--nevertheless the angle of the shadows make it appear to be a lower angle shot which would agree with that interpretation. Really powerful.

One thing I really like about animations is there vibrancy of color. Normally, though, I tend not to like shots without any shadows but here I feel they would hinder an already perfect, serene picture. Again I like the feeling of openness here that is created with a very bright, shadowless and sunless field. If there were shadows I think it might just make the depth of field more constricted then it should. This movie was about searching and freedom within unlimited distances; and with the space depicted, from an almost dimensionless shot (contrasting/shadow), I think that is what is accomplished here. There is no uniformity in colors that is usually the case with great distances (because of the tapering off of light as the field of view grows) rather a differing in color as the trees and grass still focus into our view even into the far reaches of the frame.

Here are some more samples of visually compelling portraits

Ten Films

• Red Beard
  
• Hiroshima, Mon Amour
• The Browning Version
• Nights of Cabiria
• The Petrified Forest
• The Odd Couple
• The Apartment
• One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
• Stalag 17
• Umberto D

Red Beard: