Discover Top Posts Tagged with #joey lopez

Slice of Life (dirs. Gavin Matts & Joey Lopez).

After being denied the renewal of their lease for their local art gallery, the three owners convince each other to throw one last party, only to be stopped by the landlord.

#slice of life #short film #gavin matts #joey lopez #comedy #comedy here often #video #vancouver #vancity #comedian #comedians #slasher #slasher comedy #yvr

Chronos

Clip Link to be watched:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8IKMpRiCzQ

Joey Lopez

Shira Segal

5/01/2013

Film Topics 2000: Landscapes

Chronos: Fresh Images

Indeed Chronos, by Ron Fricke, was a visual masterpiece. It was brilliant, both in the way that the pictures were shown, and how they were captured. Ron Fricke is no stranger to these types of images; there was a film that preceded Chronos, called Koyaanisqatsi, which he did not direct but wrote. The film Chronos, does not have a recognizable plot, but instead is a collection of artfully developed and shot images. The film begins by taking us through a vast dessert in which there are several camera techniques which are used in order to pull us through the landscape. We see it from the air and still from the ground. From thereafter we are taken on a journey that brings us to the farthest parts of the earth. Indeed there are many natural landscapes that we observe throughout this film, but a long with this Fricke does not forget the human aspect of the world. He conveys the human aspects of the world in stark contrast with the natural aspects; he does this by cutting back and forth from shots of nature, to shots of cityscapes or manmade structures. Although there may not be an essential plot that we can recognize, one cannot help but get a sense that Fricke is trying to tell us a story; after all that is what film is about. Through the use of certain camera work and editing he begins to develop a rhythm and story that we can begin to follow. There are several key concepts that we have studied, which can be applied to this film, and each one carries significant weight. Fricke seems to be using the still and powerful stature of the stationary pieces of landscape to paint a picture of what we as humans look like against it; humans are conveyed as insects, busy small minded things that don’t grasp the world around us.

There are so many concepts that we have discussed in class, yet we can only touch on a few of them. In the readings we were assigned there was a reading called The Beholding Eye, by D.W. Meinig. In this reading, which I find to be of importance to this piece, Meinig describes landscape in several ways. The first way that comes to mind is when he describes the landscape as being mystical, magical, and even a little seductive. “It is not hard to see beauty and power in nature. One can feel an awe and majesty even in the mere depictions of nature (Meinig 35, par. 2).” This aspect of landscape is more than abundant in the film Chronos. One shot stands out in particular for me. Towards the beginning of the film, within the first five minutes, there is a long shot of a desert with several plateaus in it, and atop these plateaus are shadows. The shadows form the clouds above are seen crawling over the landscape like a black viscous liquid. The camera is not stationary but instead it pans form frame left to frame right and slightly follows the clouds across the terrain. This is landscape as purely spectacle, there is no metaphor or deeper meaning behind it and it simply is.

Another concept that this brings to mind, almost instantaneously, is the concept of “fresh images (Prager 92, par. 1).” A piece called Landscape of the Mind, by Brad Prager, describes the shooting style and intentions of one Werner Herzog. In the piece Prager describes Herzog’s intent to be that which can provide images that are unprocessed, images that are fresh and new. There are several pieces in Chronos that aim to throw new and unseen images at us; that is what the film does for the viewer. For instance, when we come upon the lone castle in the middle of the bay, we see something that is amazing in itself, but then Fricke takes it a step further. By using a crane and tracking over the top of the castle, while the tide fluctuates, we are exposed to a sequence of actions which make the whole shot magical. We see the peaks of the castle in sharp contrast with the motion of the incoming tide, and together the composition allows us to see the castle from point of view most of us probably would never have thought of. This point of view kind of reminds me of Stan Brakhages notion of untutored vision, simply because film allows us to see the world in ways we could only dream of.

To try and choose just one composition or sequence of shots to analyze from this film is quite a hard task. There are so many beautiful and captivating images that I could dive into. The one that stands out to me the most would have to be the shot of the inside of some sort of steeple or cathedral that I cannot recognize. The composition of the shot is as follows: it is a long shot with a broad field of depth, there are people that the viewers can see in the foreground, and the camera is in a position where they look quite small, directly forward from the camera we see half of a dome with windows that let in the sun, there are only three or so windows, they convey the movement of the sun during the day, and we can see the light beams move in quite the theatrical way. Indeed this composition is beautiful, and yes it did take me aback, because I never thought that something so simple could be so great. I can only guess that not everyone has seen that location the way that we did. Fricke uses a time lapse in order to show the sun moving from the left side of the frame to the right side of the frame, but the only reason why we know how the sun is moving is because of the angle of the rays. This composition is very moving for me. The way that the rays move across the shot is almost angelic and it really provided me with a sense of peace. On the opposite note, I really did not like the way that the humans in the shot made everything look. The way that they moved so fast and so hastily just really took away from the elegance of the light and the architecture. But, that I think that Frick did that on purpose in order to, once again, convey the message that we tend to make everything that we come into contact with worse for wear. In class we kind of discussed this after we watched Manufactured Landscapes, by Edward Burtynsky. In that film we were able to see the landscapes that we create as humans who allow and produce waste and clutter which builds up into these monstrous formations. In the discussion we hit on the topic of humans being this type of disease that is making the earth worse. Likewise in the film by Fricke there is a comparison of majestic stillness and tranquility to the franticness of human beings. Throughout the film there are a lot of shots of these standalone types of structures, and then as the film progresses more people come into the shots. In the sequence I am talking about there are decent amount of human beings but they are a small part of the shot. They are almost like an afterthought. The primary focus is on the light movement and architecture in the building. The light beams give depth and texture to the architecture and the architecture almost serves as a canvas. Along with the light exposer and composition there is the camera movement itself. For starters the camera does not move. I personally love this type of camera work; I found it minimalistic and simple. A reading called Cinematic Landscapes, by Chris Lukinbeal, also draws attention to the fact that the simplistic camera angle could also reveal a type of beauty that we don’t normally see. “As spectacle, it [landscape] can be something fascinating in itself, thereby momentarily satisfying a voyeuristic appeal created by the narrative (Lukinbeal 11, par. 1).” I think that Fricke aimed to show the beauty of the architecture in this shot, due to the fact that the frame is wide angle, and there is a large depth of field. Fricke could have used a telephoto lens and simply focused on the lights changing, but he pulled the frame back and kept everything in focus. Another aspect was the moving people down below. This was obviously intentional and for me it could have been to show that maybe some people don’t know how to appreciate something beautiful that is going on around them, that could explain the fact that the empty space is the space where all the people are walking through. Another aspect of the shot that was interesting to me is the fact that right after the shot of the dome and the lights coming in through the top there is a sequential shot of what I think might be the rest of the dome that we see form a lower angle. What intrigues me is the fact that Frick chose to show this, because even though the shot is good it is less fantastical than the shot of the light beams moving. It is almost dissatisfying; it pulled me out of the wonder of the previous shot. I don’t know why he chose to do this, but I am curious. Overall it was a beautiful sequence and I really enjoyed the way that Fricke captured the moving light along with the bustling people and the reverent architecture.

Ron Fricke has given many of us a chance to see the world in ways that we haven’t even thought we would be able to see the world. Through all of his time lapses and trips around the world we have witnessed events that not all human beings will witness in their lifetimes. Chronos is a masterpiece of visual storytelling and was the beginning for several films to come. The lack of camera movement in contrast with the crazy camera movement towards the end when humans start to get involved will always say the same message to me; nature is beautiful and by itself it can be beautiful, we as humans are directly affected and therefore affect the earth. A lot of key concepts were touched on in this film, and for me it was not about metaphor or place or even space, it was about spectacle, appreciating the natural beauty of the landscape and the simple lessons that can be learned by observing it. Several readings pay tribute to the concept of spectacle including Prager on Herzog, which is one of my favorites, and Lukinbeal, who describes spectacle in a way that everyone can understand. In the end, Fricke is one of a kind, and I cannot even compare his films to others, but if I had to compare his films to some other one that we may have seen this year I would have to say that his films mostly resemble no one else’s, because they are that unique.

Works Cited

Lukinbeal, Chris. “Cinematic Landscapes.” 1 May. 2013. PDF File.

Meinig, D.W. “The Beholding Eye.” 1 May. 2013. PDF File.

Prager, Brad. “Landscapes of the mind; The Indifferent Earth in Werner Herzog’s Films.” 1 May. 2013. PDF File.

#Joey Lopez #Shira Segal #film topics #Chronos