Saturday, April 28, 2012

Vid-ya Art: a workshop.

Today I went to a video workshop put on these girls that go under the name Girls Get Busy.

I was a bit weird at first cause I didn't know what was going on, a few technical issues and everyone there knew each other so it was a bit strange. BUT - the whole thing was awesome and thought provoking and inspiring and weird and all that shit.

It's great how people just accept who they are and what they are doing. Well, I guess you have to define yourself when you are in a place like London. There was a showing of work from a bunch of varied video artists, then a break, then a showing of some work by some artists/directors who were at the viewing, and then a discussion with them at the end. There was also a video booth that people could go and record something in, but I didn't feel like I could be a part of it. Well, I could of but I couldn't be bothered.

SCREENSHOT OF INFO.



OK, now I'm gonna try and find some of the videos online. OK YAY! First off - these are the people who talked.

Right - Margarita Louca. She's a pretty strong lady. She started out doing graphic design and then thought Fuck it, I'm gonna hit film hard. And did! She started out learning technical stuff and then got more into the process. I overheard her chatting to someone that she is gonna be making the live visuals for the NEXT METALLICA TOUR. WAAAAAHHHH~?




She talked about how she gets invited to make responses to things (she doesn't exclusively do that though). I wondered about whether this was totally egotistical or utterly human. Wanting to connect but wanting to be important to someone.
And some other stuff too. She likes to make works that are emotive and not narrative (but does both). Cool story thanks Gemma. One of the videos she played doesn't seem to be online, but it was a response to the latest Werner Herzog film Into the Abyss.

Nell Eu played us her short film "Spit". I tried to find it online but couldn't. She deals with more narrative based stuff. It's so weird that all these people have DOP's and stuff like that. It's like, in NZ you have to just budgo your way through everything, while here people are IN THEIR ROLE. Not a bad thing, but makes me want to focus.

And then there wasss Alison Severs! She works at Vice and produces Cute Stuff. She also does other work like making this documentary on Krokadil in Siberia. We only watched the last 10 minutes but it was grueling.



The she also does stuff like this. KIDS RESPOND TO PARANOID ANDROID.


Someone asked about the humour in the second one, fuck I can't remember specifically what the question was, but it almost felt like the last video was the one that got the biggest response. Hoomer is important.

I dunno, maybe some of the other videos were trying to convey EMOTIONS, or be emotive, but were a bit contrived, or just kind of failed. The simple video and the humour were so natural that it just kind of made everyone at ease. I don't think you have to be the best actors in the world to get the message across properly - maybe just the best director?

It's like, when you see someone who is perfect I always want to see the imperfect in them. Like if someone spends hours straightening their hair, I love seeing the tiny little crimpy bit that they missed. In those videos where you are trying to create these honest emotions/stories there always seems to be a bit of failure in them.

That doesn't mean I'm totally writing the others off, cause I enjoyed most of them, but I always look at "art that looks like art" with a suspicious eye.

Annnnnnd - It was at the Shackwell Arms, which is a pretty sweet place.



2 comments:

  1. Was JJ Stratford there? I <3 her!

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  2. I don't think so! But this is the film we watched. It was AWESOME.
    http://telefantasystudios.com/?/projects/project-name-11/

    ReplyDelete