Aesthetic Part Four: Critique and Concluding Remarks

To the people in ART250, section M4:

You are all very very cruel people.

I really wasn't going after schadenfreude, but I guess there's an inherent comedic effect in the piece. Yes, it's very funny until someone gets hurt. Then it's Hilarious. In a similar vein, people in distress usually look funny and we can't help pointing and laughing, especially with Ben's stellar face acting and gesticulations. When filming 8 1/2 Fellini taped a message to his camera that basically stated "remember - this is a comedy." Perhaps in the course of filming I had it on my mind to remember that this is the black comedy of our college lives, and it was recieved that way. So to reiterate, you are all very very cruel people. But it was well warranted.

If we all have been put into a situation like this (which I gather was the case from people's responses) then naturally we tend to see ourselves in pieces like this, and it's perfectly okay to laugh at ourselves. We are all very self-abusive and thus self-deprecating. So, we are very cruel because we don't love ourselves enough to feel pity for the subject, or just love ourselves in a cruel manner because we recognize that this is painful and enjoy it. However you spin it, you can't hide from the fact. You're a cruel, cruel person.

Not all of you recognized exclusively the humour, some saw the frustration, the agony, the boredom, the other feelings that you thought of. On the whole, most of you liked the piece and didn't offer any criticism like you did for "Circles." I was kind of disappointed in that, seeing as how I didn't have a rough copy to show at workshop time (which also explains why I don't have paper copies of that round of the process), and hoped that someone would pipe up. I remember clearly that Heather offered something critical, but I forgot what specifically. I was too giddy at the fact that someone rendered some criticism (this is not sarcasm). That said, I'll make some of my own up. I had a lot of unintentional continuity issues that I didn't think people would notice, but someone did, that in particular was the fact that the hands typing were not the actor's hands, as the big red X on my hand but not Ben's would indicate. Danny noticed it enough to make a comment about it, citing the possibility that the night before, the subject had gone out and maybe had a little too much fun? The second time he drinks from the travel mug is just a longer take of the first time he does so, split apart and placed at opposite ends of the film from each other. Presumably, this cold have been retaken with the subject changed in respect to how he should be at 4 in the a.m.: hunched over and trembling slightly, eyes maybe blodshot. I did only have my subject for about 15 minutes though, and it was a distressing 15 minutes for him without changing how his eyes looked. Still, continuity issues were pressing.

Also, another criticism Cory issued was how we don't see the subject's frustration in writing alone, but merely implied as a lack of progress. What I could have included was some semblance of progress within the paper he was writing, only to be stifled by self-critical realization, for example, a whole, explicitly typed sentence deleted in a few backspaces. While this approach may have made contextual sense, I think it would have detracted from the character's development, in that this is not a Sisyphean effort at all, but rather a result of the character's inabilities to cope under stress and be creative.

I enjoyed everyone's comments greatly and the levels on which they appreciated the work. At the same time, this is a struggle of man, but on another level, this was portrayed as a struggle of man vs. machine. People recognized that the computer is itself a character, injecting itself into a strained relationship, rather than a static plot device. I especially enjoyed the little things that I thought were unconsequential, like the sentences I chose to write as a "paper." As I mentioned, those are my reward for you paying so close attention to the film. The fun is always in the details, and I'm glad you pick up on them.

So this is a new thing: I uploaded my video to YouTube instead of netfiles and posted a click-a-link to it below, rather than having to let it load and take up unnecessary bandwith.... Hooray! Enjoy:



Now that I look at it, it's not all that great because of the incessant and omnipresent YouTube label. Boo on video watermarks! This is the price we pay for free media hosting...

So these are where the critiques for my classmates shall go:

NATH - Before the Test

I recall being more rushed before tests, like I'm frantically trying to cram words and figures and formulas into my head from some lengthy tome, or else I'm rushing up Goodwin on my bike to get to Siebel Center before they pass out scantrons and don't want to run into a large lecture hall as sheepishly like I imagine, or fall down the stairs there, or whatever. This is your depiction and I can understand where you're coming from. I liked the use of your watch as a narrative component and source of that incessant ticking that keeps you going ten or fifteen minutes before the TA carts in that packet of freshly-copied exams. I noticed you did speed it up ever so slightly, but it is imperceptible and perhaps it is my imagination that actually does the acceleration. You might have wanted to increase it in volume, but you weren't going for an overdramatic depiction of such. Instead, you put yourself at a certain distance from the camera and kept yourself there, and focused primarily on what might be bothering you, that is, the book and leaves of paper that you have to shuffle and sort through, emphasizing perhaps the importance of what you're going over, rather than the emotions you percieve at the time. Or the emotional response is implied, but we do not see it, other than your sense and awareness of time with repeated glances at your watch. You are obviously rushed. But not that much. Maybe you're nervous. You removed yourself as a character with feelings and a (possible) sense of foreboding. I like the overall narrative arc of the piece and you really do document the minutes or so before going into DCL and having to wrestle with a piece of paper, much like how Joe leaves out the actual sparring in his piece. It's a depiction, rather than a feeling, and it's effective in this regard.

HEATHER - Waves of memory(?)

What hit me was the disturbing quality of your images and the effects you chose, for example, the reversed footage of the jet of water hitting the car windshield or the hands reaching towards the fireplace or just about the bulk of your images that on an initial viewing are unrecognizable. I would have liked to read your aesthetic writing. Or maybe I shouldn't like to. I suppose the whole point of your depiction was that it reflects a certain amount of uncertainty and unfamiliarity, and maybe emotions entailing confusion or mental unfocus or terror, or whatever. I couldn't guess at what you wrote because the channels between the writing and the images are blurred simply because of the premise of your piece. I can't say I remember my dreams, and I can't say I remember in vivid detail half of the images you used. Some stick out and are in that respect effective, and I guess that says a lot about the sheer number and variety of images you used. I must point out, however, that some shots were ambiguous in that they were not well-lit. My mind says this is a conscious choice on your part and only furthers the idea that they are left intentionally ambiguous, but there are a series of these images. Not enough to detract from the piece, but enough to leave me wondering what's the dark space in this video for? If I go on I'll end up speculating, so I'll stop. What I can point out is how you left the piece end. It just kind of ends. It's going in full force and then... stops. With the speedometer at 15 or so. Even a simply fade-out would be appropriate, something, anything! Again, this is merely a point of contention that someone like me would point out. Yes it would be nice to end gracefully, but it's an aesthetic piece, and does it really need such an end? I'll leave it at that.