16mm Avant Garde Short Film (Maya Deren inspired) at DVinfo.net

Bryan Roberts · January 14th, 2004, 03:13 PM

Hey all. Well I completed this 5 minute short entitled "Lucidity" with Kari Sartorius in November but just got a chance to upload it and share. It was shot on 16mm B/W film and is silent with only a background track. It's heavily inspired if not based apon the Maya Deren short film "Meshes of the Afternoon" from 1943 and carries the same sound track from Teiji Ito. It's not supposed to have a concrete explanation, but is more for one's own personal interpretation: more of a voyage into this woman's subconscience.

There are a few shots that are a little out of focus because I didn't have access to a Macro lense but some of the ECU's were required so I did the best I could. Anyways..... Hope you enjoy....

The file is 20 megs and is in WM9 because I can't get Premiere to compress the QT to a size that'll fit on my school server (less than 30 megs).

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~berobert/lucidity small.wmv

Credits:

Bryan Roberts: story development : storyboards : shooting : editing

Kari Sartorius: concept development : story development : actor

John Gaspain · January 15th, 2004, 03:10 AM

I will never understand women.

Peter Sieben · January 15th, 2004, 12:29 PM

Hi Bryan,

Good to see some work of you again. How far are you with your application for the filmschool?

Nice piece of work (not that I will ever understand women for 100%!). I'd like to use my imagination on a movie that offers you something surrealistic. The black and white fits this short movie well. Some parts of the movie are completely silent. Using different kind of ambiece sound or music could enhance the mood more, now it's a kind of Chinese tune that isn't really connected to the kind of images to my opinion.
A suggestion I would made about an avant garde movie like this one, to make it more surrealistic and less lineair. With weird compositions/camera angles, subtle effects in postproduction. With less lineair would mean: it's like following the girl going into the house a couple of times. That's part of the story, but what you can do with editing is making this less obvious, using time jumps whatever. A good movie that's surrealistic is "Repulsion" by Roman Polanski. The way he filmed and edited this b/w movie is briliant.
Anyway Bryan, that's just some little advice. Overall, I watched your work with pleasure and look out to your next production!

Peter Sieben

J. Clayton Stansberry · January 15th, 2004, 12:41 PM

Bryan,

Did you take the short down? I can't get that link to work...says can't find the path? Want to see it...

Bryan Roberts · January 15th, 2004, 03:20 PM

Hey, thanks for the feedback guys:

The short is still up and is working properly...

Peter - I completely agree with your comments. The reason I chose the path I did with more of a linear feel and the weird chinese music was heavily a tribute to the 1943 short it's based on. That background music is actually the same music track from the 43' short (although the 43' short was 15 minutes) and I left the portions of silence as to keep in with the style, again, of the 43' short as it also had some periods of silence with only white noise. Believe me, it was hard to leave it untouched in those silent places as we've concurred before, sound can be such an integral part of a piece. I think I was going for extreme minimalistic and also a heavy tribute to the original so that's why I stuck with the linear progression and original music.

Alex Taylor · January 15th, 2004, 05:53 PM

Great work! I have to ask, what camera did you use? We get Bolex H16s for our first year projects. They're... interesting, to say the least.

Bryan Roberts · January 15th, 2004, 06:54 PM

Alex - we had some old school Arri's. They have been estimated at some 20 years or so old. They have to be plugged into extremely heavy powerbelts and the camera body itself is made out of extremely heavy german metal....

Peter - oh I forgot regarding the film school applications - most of them are sent off, though I ended up only choosing 3 schools to apply to. They are all in the top 10 schools so my chances of acceptance are rather slim, so I'm not holding my breath. It's more to gauge where I am right now. If I get a call back for an interview for the second tier of processing, then I'm in good shape. No response means I need to really buckle down and try again next year. I have some big projects lined up as we speak so I'm not too worried either way :)

Peter Sieben · January 16th, 2004, 01:48 AM

Hi Bryan,

You never know how things turn out, perhaps you get a phone call today!

I understand you've followed the original movie for your short. That's always an interesting subject regarding remakes: do I want to copy the original in some ways, or do I give my own interpretation and approach to the original concept/story etc.

Good to hear you're working on new projects. We are preparing to shoot a short movie for the Gershwin project (see http://www.vailfilmfestival.org/subm...s/gershwin.htm). If the weather conditions are good, we are going to shoot Monday. We are preparing this short with the three of us. One of the two people just started filmschool for production-work and she likes to help us, which is great as she has arranged free actors via an agency and is hunting locations. A bit funny for me, as I am normally a controlfreak on all aspects but I feel confident by the way she handles her role. I also feel a bit nervous about having more experienced actors (both 75+ years old).

Greetings, Peter

January 14th, 2004, 03:13 PM	#1
Bryan Roberts Major Player Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 436	16mm Avant Garde Short Film (Maya Deren inspired) Hey all. Well I completed this 5 minute short entitled "Lucidity" with Kari Sartorius in November but just got a chance to upload it and share. It was shot on 16mm B/W film and is silent with only a background track. It's heavily inspired if not based apon the Maya Deren short film "Meshes of the Afternoon" from 1943 and carries the same sound track from Teiji Ito. It's not supposed to have a concrete explanation, but is more for one's own personal interpretation: more of a voyage into this woman's subconscience. There are a few shots that are a little out of focus because I didn't have access to a Macro lense but some of the ECU's were required so I did the best I could. Anyways..... Hope you enjoy.... The file is 20 megs and is in WM9 because I can't get Premiere to compress the QT to a size that'll fit on my school server (less than 30 megs). http://www4.ncsu.edu/~berobert/lucidity small.wmv Credits: Bryan Roberts: story development : storyboards : shooting : editing Kari Sartorius: concept development : story development : actor

January 15th, 2004, 03:10 AM	#2
John Gaspain Major Player Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: WA-USA Posts: 371	I will never understand women. __________________ The glory of the World passes by.

January 15th, 2004, 12:29 PM	#3
Peter Sieben Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 345	Hi Bryan, Good to see some work of you again. How far are you with your application for the filmschool? Nice piece of work (not that I will ever understand women for 100%!). I'd like to use my imagination on a movie that offers you something surrealistic. The black and white fits this short movie well. Some parts of the movie are completely silent. Using different kind of ambiece sound or music could enhance the mood more, now it's a kind of Chinese tune that isn't really connected to the kind of images to my opinion. A suggestion I would made about an avant garde movie like this one, to make it more surrealistic and less lineair. With weird compositions/camera angles, subtle effects in postproduction. With less lineair would mean: it's like following the girl going into the house a couple of times. That's part of the story, but what you can do with editing is making this less obvious, using time jumps whatever. A good movie that's surrealistic is "Repulsion" by Roman Polanski. The way he filmed and edited this b/w movie is briliant. Anyway Bryan, that's just some little advice. Overall, I watched your work with pleasure and look out to your next production! Peter Sieben __________________ Peter / Orphic Film www.orphicfilm.nl and www.myspace.com/orphicfilm

January 15th, 2004, 12:41 PM	#4
J. Clayton Stansberry Major Player Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Colorado Posts: 316	Bryan, Did you take the short down? I can't get that link to work...says can't find the path? Want to see it... __________________ I understand everything about nothing.

January 15th, 2004, 05:53 PM	#6
Alex Taylor Major Player Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Vancouver, BC Posts: 390	Great work! I have to ask, what camera did you use? We get Bolex H16s for our first year projects. They're... interesting, to say the least. __________________ alextaylor.org

January 15th, 2004, 03:20 PM	#5
Bryan Roberts Major Player Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 436	Hey, thanks for the feedback guys: The short is still up and is working properly... Peter - I completely agree with your comments. The reason I chose the path I did with more of a linear feel and the weird chinese music was heavily a tribute to the 1943 short it's based on. That background music is actually the same music track from the 43' short (although the 43' short was 15 minutes) and I left the portions of silence as to keep in with the style, again, of the 43' short as it also had some periods of silence with only white noise. Believe me, it was hard to leave it untouched in those silent places as we've concurred before, sound can be such an integral part of a piece. I think I was going for extreme minimalistic and also a heavy tribute to the original so that's why I stuck with the linear progression and original music.

January 15th, 2004, 06:54 PM	#7
Bryan Roberts Major Player Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 436	Alex - we had some old school Arri's. They have been estimated at some 20 years or so old. They have to be plugged into extremely heavy powerbelts and the camera body itself is made out of extremely heavy german metal.... Peter - oh I forgot regarding the film school applications - most of them are sent off, though I ended up only choosing 3 schools to apply to. They are all in the top 10 schools so my chances of acceptance are rather slim, so I'm not holding my breath. It's more to gauge where I am right now. If I get a call back for an interview for the second tier of processing, then I'm in good shape. No response means I need to really buckle down and try again next year. I have some big projects lined up as we speak so I'm not too worried either way :)

January 16th, 2004, 01:48 AM	#8
Peter Sieben Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 345	Hi Bryan, You never know how things turn out, perhaps you get a phone call today! I understand you've followed the original movie for your short. That's always an interesting subject regarding remakes: do I want to copy the original in some ways, or do I give my own interpretation and approach to the original concept/story etc. Good to hear you're working on new projects. We are preparing to shoot a short movie for the Gershwin project (see http://www.vailfilmfestival.org/subm...s/gershwin.htm). If the weather conditions are good, we are going to shoot Monday. We are preparing this short with the three of us. One of the two people just started filmschool for production-work and she likes to help us, which is great as she has arranged free actors via an agency and is hunting locations. A bit funny for me, as I am normally a controlfreak on all aspects but I feel confident by the way she handles her role. I also feel a bit nervous about having more experienced actors (both 75+ years old). Greetings, Peter __________________ Peter / Orphic Film www.orphicfilm.nl and www.myspace.com/orphicfilm