Alex Rueben is an independant film maker who is also a dj, he has a great interest in music and this shines through in his films. He loved dancing, and seemed to make it a reference to everything, but this was nice to see how someones passion can shine through in their work.
He gave us a very interesting talk and showed us some of his work which i thought was strong and was interested to hear his reasons behind artistic decisions made for the films and answers to questions about how to go about making film in industry etc.
Some notes i made -
Que Pasca (2001), Anthropology of peoples movement. Using the camera to paint / draw. Pollock - gut reaction, moving with the painting. Holds your attention. The brain fills in what you dont see. Intinctive / emotional.
Mistakes (2000)
Sound - own music. Don't think about platform. Mixed use of camera quality. Made as boring as possible - but so you can't stop watching. Repeating the same mistakes again - comparison to life - money, relationships, politics, war.
' By making mistakes I realise there is an order in what I do.'
and Line Dance (2004)
Using completely visual language. No edits. Muybridge - movement. A step back in technology. Dancing without cutting. Pollock - energy, paints to Jazz.
The brief reflected his ideology of how technology is taken for granted these days and therefore art/ photographs/ videos are not precious. You can film an hours worth of film on a vid camera or 1000s of photos on a digital camera and not one of them be precious, just to be stored away digitally and forgotten about.
We were asked to create a film. Quite a vague brief but with limitations - it must be a minute long and have no post editing. So we started brain storming on creating a low budget, easy but effective, simple film that was filmed in one continuous shot.
IDEAS - What actually takes a minute? Everyday situations? A egg cooking? A clock ticking? A microwave cooking? Boiling a kettle? Timing exercise? Everyday routine?
We started to look at using the minute to our advantage, as a tool to create suspense as Bas Tan Arder does in his films such as Broken Fall. Where you know what is going to happen and you are just waiting for it to do so. The idea - To have expectations of what is going to happen and then for them to be met is really satisfying.
We wanted to create something simple, with only a few days come up with the idea and film it - doing something complex just wouldnt have worked.
We wanted to make something that is not that intersting, almost dull but that you want to watch right up until the end, we had to try and pick a situation that would induce the feelings of anticipation and satisfaction. What could we use that people would like to watch? That people are satisfied when it finished? Do they feel rewarded after a minute of watching?
After a group meeting - discussing skateboarding, dominos, balls, windup toys, stairways, confetti, magnets, explosions we decided to stick to using the minute and what better way to do hat than using the timer on a microwave. Now what to put into it? CDs - Spark. Soap - Bubbles and expands. Egg - explodes. Light bulbs - turn on and off.
So a day at Justines - finding and dismantling an old microwave with a garden spade. Trying out all sorts of things in the microwave. With the best result being light-bulbs.
(make sure the sound is on)
With no editing we got just what we wanted from 3 lighbulbs. Sparks flying - blue lights. The sound, almost scary adding to the anticipation of what is going to happen - are they going to explode? After what seems what longer than a minute ( yet boredom doesn't seem to set in) - nothing happens. however the satisfying PING seems to make up for that.
A great result and such a fun project.