Sound Walk - What I Hear in Bushwick

For the sound walk exercise I decided to take a walk around my neighborhood in Brooklyn. Living in such a busy area like Bushwick, around Broadway, it was unusual but nevertheless interesting to take a moment to pay attention to the many sounds we are so used to, and take for granted during our everyday routine. By taking time to pay attention to each one of these sounds, one can realize how many different noises are always present and are constanlty ignored because it is easy to get used to them, as they mesh into a combination of everyday noise. Some of the Keynotes I heard were far-away road and airplane sounds, conversations, as well as birds chirping, which I mostly do not hear during my usual walks, not because they are not regularly present, but because of a lack of sonic awareness. The Sound Signals, which are easier to identify on a regular basis, as they are meant to call attention, were mostly those of cars honking their horns, or police/firetruck noises, as there are two stations, one for each, on the corner of my apartment. The main Soundmark for this area would without a doubt be defined as the outside subway sound, as it constantly passes by on Broadway. I would also consider traffic sound as a Soundmark. Taking time to listen was a good experience, as it made me realize how much actually makes up the everyday noises we are so used to, and how many different types of sounds would have to be included in film, in order to make a simple scene sound real.

The Museum of the Moving Image - Visit

The Museum of the Moving Image, in Astoria, Queens, is a space dedicated to the history of filmaking. The museum holds many exhibits that show a variety of filmaking items, ranging from early cameras to props used in different well-known films, such as Star Wars and The Exorcist. While everything in the museum was very interesting, a couple of the things that mostly called my attention were the early kinetoscopes, zoetropes and thaumatropes. Although I knew of these devices before, and understood how they worked based on optical illusion, it was very interesting to see them and have a chance to peek at an original kinetoscope. Also, seeing up close the effects of a strobe lights in moving devices and sculptures called my attention to the concept of "moment of rest" which our eyes need in order to make the images appear as if moving in a certain sequence, even though they have a different orientation or do not move at all. Another very interesting part of the visit was desconstructing the sound effects in a movie scene, in this case one of the final sequences in The Titanic. During the visit, our guide showed one by one the effects included in a scene when the famous ship is sinking, and after, played the scene without the entire combination of sountrack and effects, instead showing them one by one. Watching the scene with the isolated sounds made me realize how much effort is put into sound, and how the combination of several different effects can create tension and convey emotion. It was also very interesting to find out that effects such as elephant sounds and gunshot sounds were used in a scene where neither is actually present. Overall the visit to the museum was great, and it was definitely very nice to be able to see up close so many filmmaking devices and props.

Flaherty Film Festival

The Flaherty Film Festival is a nonprofit organization for film, media and arts, that supports the production of independent documentaries and short films, among other forms of media. It aims at further stimulating the production of independent material, as well as providing a chance for discussion of the same, among the general public. It is currently on its fifth showing on a series of six, at the Anthology Film Theater in New York City.

In its fifth installment, "Waste and Other Forms of Management," the festival showed a series of short documentaries and films regarding issues such as recycling, garbage management and social issues. Among these was the short film "Overseas," by Wichanon Somumjarn and Anocha Suwichakornpong, which tells in a few shots, the story of Wawa Kai, a Burmese woman who works in a seafood processing factory and wants an abortion after being raped. One very interesting instance in this short happened when Wawa Kai descends from a boat, and feels dizzy. At this point the camera becomes unsteady and blurry, expressing the state in which the main character finds herself. It also leaves a clue as to her pregnancy, foreshadowing that which at this point is still unknown to the audience.

"Pigs", by Pawel Wojtasik, showed the process in which pigs are fed the rests from Casino buffets in Las Vegas, at a slaughter farm. Wojtasik did a very good job in shocking the audience. Throughout the short film he shows close-up and extreme close-ups of pigs in a pig-pen, walking on their excrements as they defecate and eat food from the ground. The rests from the restaurants are in plastic bags, which the animals also eat. The combination of the close-up shots of pigs drooling and of their backsides and bottoms as they defecate, as well as shots of the animals rolling around in a mixture of dirt, feces and food, achieve the director's goal of causing disgust and shock. Moreover, the sounds of pigs screaming, which escalate towards the end, as well as the pace that fastens with shorter shots and quicker cuts, work very well as far as building up tension. Despite the appaling nature of the short, it was greatly done.

Another relevant short documentary from Pawl Wojtasik as well as Toby Lee and Ernst Karel, presented in the festival, was a video filmed in a recycling plant. Some shots within it were in fact very artistic and elaborate. One example is when bits of shreded paper and plastic are blown in the air slowly, in a process of waste separation, as well as close-ups of the garbage separation beds as the garbage moves through it.

Overall the festival and the variety of works was very interesting as well as the chance to discuss these works with the directors, after the screenings.

Define a Space - Church from Clarissa Peters on Vimeo.

Statement

As an aspiring writer and filmaker, creativity always came easily to me. The desire to write stories was always present and ideas are found everywhere. As a media student aiming at graduating in both filmaking and journalism, I was always atracted to what is aesthetically different.

With influences ranging from film noir and cult to criminal drama masterpieces such as The Godfather, as well as sometimes unusual filmaking figures, and a great interest in foreign and independent cinema and dystopian stories, crime mistery/suspense is by far my favorite genre in both film and writing, whether being fiction or non-fiction works.

My goal is to be able to work in both areas, whether writing sceenplays and working with these stories behind the camera, or writing novels and printing narratives. What interests me the most are the many different forms and tools of storytelling

The many different manners in which a story can be put together in film, as well as the different techniques and effects such as cinematography and misè-en-scene, shot angles, lenses, editing, use of sound and the way in which the juxtaposition of these choices affect a story and have the power to completely change meaning or convey different emotions are some of the reasons why filmaking fascinates me.

As a storyteller, however, all I need is the luxury of free time, and brainstorming already comes automatically.