DVC 7 "Burning Memories"

[Meryem Ersoz]

okay, i'm reluctantly posting my feedback thread, but only because lorinda sweetly requested it....

the backstory: i signed up for this, thinking oh a little added fun-configured stress for the holidays would be nice...little did i know.

1) i got the flu--and what usually works its way through in 24 hours lasted five miserable days, including the day i managed to drag myself outside to build a fire and shoot this...oh ye gods!

2) my best friend with a penchant for unannounced visits chose that weekend to drop in from telluride for laser surgery. dropping in for laser surgery, you say?? as unlikely as it is, that's what happened. upon plucking her out of surgery on friday, she announced that she needed a ride saturday morning at 6:30 am back to denver--the eye doctor scheduled her earlier than expected so that he could go to the dentist. whatever. off we go, and there goes another half a day.

3) so between dropping her off at a bookstore on sunday, when her eyes were unveiled, for christmas shopping and a latte, and then picking her up two hours later, i shot this, captured it, and commenced editing. then i picked her up and dragged her off to my studio, where i managed to preview it once before uploading it, then driving her to the airport.

4) somehow the only bit of dialogue--you're supposed to hear me saying "ah, perfect" in the final frame seems to have dropped out. so go ahead and imagine that bit.

enough whining....

i always sign up for these to learn something, and what i learned is that i actually liked working in the much-maligned cineframe 24 on my FX-1. it's very gothic looking in black and white, i think, and i really liked the look and wish i had more time and a few more brain cells to play with it. since i make corporate video, i don't often get to muck around with different new stuff, so the DVC is always an opportunity to play.....

just be kind!

can i just add that marshmallows toasted over black boxes manufactured in the 1950s taste pretty toxic? ptui...

[Lorinda Norton]

“Sweetly?” As I recall it was more like, “Dang it, Meryem, get your feedback post started!” ;)

I loved this! After some of the heart-wrenching stuff I’ve been watching, this was the perfect antidote. Even the box went in! Hahaha! It sounds as though you may have had several boxes to burn, or was this a one-take, make or break proposition?

If you feel like sharing, I’d love to know the stories behind some of that stuff you “burned”—were those actual keepsakes you dumped out of the box or did you just collect random things? And was the mood of the piece in any way a reflection of how you felt that week? LOL!

Thanks so much for the sacrifice; I know you felt terrible, but you made my day.

"Ah...perfect." :)

[Meryem Ersoz]

you're way too kind!

in my feverish brain, it was supposed to be archetypal....like, when the relationship ends, what in the world do you do with old love letters, old rings, keepsakes, love tokens, notes, etc.

burn baby burn. then eat marshmallows. something like that. dunno if it came across with my hurry mtv editing. i should have slowed the whole thing down. the pacing is all off.

but hey, at least i'm off the Wall (in more ways than that implies....)

[Darryl Ahye]

Hey Meryem,
Thank goodness you are off the wall (in more ways that one).

I really appreciated your film (its so bittersweet), the mood, the symbolism.
The film caught me at a very receptive moment of my life.
It actually felt like it was made just for me.
If only it were that easy to burn memories.
The memories that haunt me, never seem to rest.

Good work Meryem, you're actually making me teary.

[Hugh DiMauro]

Gosh Meryem... When you want to forget you really want to forget. Burning memories to The Blue Danube? Nice touch.

[Bradley L Marlow]

Yay!

"From Phlegm to Film - The trials and tribulations of a diehard DVCer"

I love the burning of the past memories and imagine it was from a nasty relationship. Then, to see the simple act of roasting a marshmallow over the flames, to me is like a strange rite-of-passage or a mini-healing. Even better yet, how about a straight up "F#*% off and goodbye!"

I liked the look you achieved with your new camera. How long have you had that?

Congratulations on your finishing and we should have a hard and fast rule that Meryem MUST always have a feedback thread.

Best wishes~
Bradley

[Mike Horrigan]

Short but sweet... I liked it.

I think I saw your shadow during the opening though... ;)

I did like the idea, and the point came across well. Burn baby burn!

Mike

[Meryem Ersoz]

aw, geez, you guys are swell....

i think i prefer bradley's title to my own, "from phlegm to film"--c'est moi!

thanks for checking out my one-minute folly. and for the lovely ensuing bonhomie....

p.s. to lorinda--i actually couldn't go through with it. i kept the keepsakes and stuffed the box with dummy papers. so the box burned. and the one piece i threw in. up next in DVC 8--"From Phlegm to Eternity: The Sequel" haha, maybe i can actually go through with it next time....

[Meryem Ersoz]

Originally Posted by Mike Horrigan

Short but sweet... I liked it.

I think I saw your shadow during the opening though... ;)

I did like the idea, and the point came across well. Burn baby burn!

Mike

heh. i can't blame that on the flu--it was intentional, like my shadow stalking myself kinda thing...

funny how those moments when you're being all heavy-duty and meaningful can just look like bad video!

[Chris Barcellos]

Meryem:

Re: FX1 and Cineframe24. I have to agree with you. It seems like we sometimes listen to others about features on cameras. This is prime example. A lot of "make it like film" junkies dumped all over format this early, I think before it was given any real hard look. The so called experts look at the thing once and dismiss it because it didn't react exactly the way they expected. I found same thing with 16:9 mode in the VX and PD lines. Ultimately, people may be passing up a pretty nice tool.

Back to the film. I seem to be having to look at all the films twice to get a feel for them.... Same with yours. First go around didn't catch some because I looked at it on the wrong monitor. Played dark. Second time a better look, and I like the feel and look of it a lot!! Nice job...

[Mike Horrigan]

Originally Posted by Meryem Ersoz

heh. i can't blame that on the flu--it was intentional, like my shadow stalking myself kinda thing...

funny how those moments when you're being all heavy-duty and meaningful can just look like bad video!

Ahhh... I see. It was just barely noticeable so I thought that maybe it was a slip. :)

My mistake.

It's too bad that you were sick and with company. I would have loved to have seen more.

Mike

[Meryem Ersoz]

the compression does make it look kind of darker than it looked on the monitor--another thing i could have tweaked had time permitted.

i agree with you, chris, that it's definitely better to run your own tests of things. cineframe 24 is not good for what videographers have come to consider film look. i've heard it described as a special effect, but that's not exactly accurate either. i think it is its own thing entirely--kind of a signature look. there's something kind of spectral about it. it's not just that it looks kind of like old film (in B&W), but it actually has the feel of old film, more than any other video format i've encountered. uncanny, spectral, magical--that kind of supernatural quality which video has had so much trouble replicating. all those technical attempts--shallow DOF, 24fps, etc.--still don't get at the aura of film. and in some small way, i felt that cineframe 24, with all of its softness and mis-handling of motion, still held something of that aura. i definitely want to muck with it some more.

[Michael Fossenkemper]

Well I liked it. I don't care what framerate it was shot it. I liked the concept of burning your memories. I know I've done something similar in the past. But I kind of regreted it later. But I can see how someone would need to do that to move on. I liked the pace of it. it was kind of slow and deliberate. Really interesting. because it said so little, it made you think into it. really nice.

[Dennis Khaye]

I liked it too, short and to the point. No crying, no guns, no heavy drinking (at least not in this scene). Nice job Meryem.

[Bruce Foreman]

Considering the total disaster you were experiencing, I think you did a neat moody job.

Diehard DVC'er...Obviously.

I don't know what to think about all this "fixation" on a film look. Film is film and video is video and i enjoy a good story told with either.

Yes I know video often looks too vivid and contrasty but things can be done about that with softer lighting, diffusion filters and effects, etc.

That being said tho, I tried out the ProCinema mode on my camera (mutes colors and contrast a bit and expands the dynamic range to where it supposedly looks more like the way film handles tonal values and such) and I'm glad to have it and will use it, but not get "fixated" on it.

But I also like the look of what you achieved.

Bruce