Hi all!
For my final project, I decided to make a short film entitled “Commentary.” I worked with my cousin (who stars in the piece) to capture some very surreal, unconventional footage. With a loose concept at first, I allowed the film to change and develop over time. I edited using iMovie. The style of the editing is quick, disjointed and at times disorienting. After trying several musical arrangements, I decided to go with Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew. I think that this song choice was a good one, as it adds tremendously to the frenetic quality of the film.
After screening the film to some family members, and receiving many varying points of view and opinions, I was stuck with the idea to provide layers of commentary overtop of the piece itself. I wanted to explore the ideas of manipulating art and film, over saturation of the media and the inability to form one’s own opinions or interpret meaning for one’s self. The voices in the film bombard the listener with information and opinions that do not leave room for independent thought. The combination of constantly changing images and sound work as a cacophony. In this day and age the hype around a piece of art often overwhelms the art and becomes more important than it. We follow the trend and feel the way we are told to feel about art. We are also no longer willing to suspend our disbelief. Instead we are obsessed with learning the behind the scenes knowledge. We watch films with the commentaries on, because we want to know what the actors and directors have to say. My short film plays with these ideas…
Overall, I had a great time working on this project. The editing processes became very addictive!
Here is the Link to my video…
~Joanna