This is a blog about film programming and exhibition. The blog was originally created for Cinema 506, but the public is welcome to comment and be inspired!
2/26/2010 in class we will break up into sub committees to and starts preparing for the film finals event. What the event will be is still up in the air, hopefully we will have more direction ...but in any case...people should break up into the following groups and start researching the needs for each group, what they are responsible for and create an action plan and timeline.
Action Plans and Timelines Due March 5. (plan to present to the class and we will finesse out roles and tasks from there)
Committees (we may add more, or combine some if needed):
Sponsorship: research who the class asked last year (i may have a student we can email), look at other film festivals and events and see who usually donates, find out places that donate in general and make a list of what we need for the film finals event and reception. All food/drink/accessories etc need to be donations, we have no money for this.
Publicity: Break down what we are doing publicity for and where. Part 1: For Call for Submissions, that is contained to the school- Find out what folks did in the past, and make a list of ways to publicize the call for submissions (posters- where?), email lists, cinema collective, going into classrooms etc. Part 2: Publicity for the event which is outside of school. Make a plan for publicizing to the school and outside...getting write ups in local papers (I can give some leads for SF 360, Guardian etc), making postcards or fliers and placing them in strategic places (media arts organizations, coffee shops, movies theatres etc). Make a plan of what and where and how much this will cost. We can use money for publicity. Part 3: The internet and Facebook- make a plan for creating a FB page, getting people to our FB page and also what other film related listerves and arts organizations we can post to.
Programming: Find out what is involved with the programming side aside form watching and curating the program. Ask people involved last year. Other elements to consider and make a plan for: Making sure all submission material is complete (title, description, dvd and quicktime file, high res image), ballets for film previews and system to score films (I can provide samples, find out what they did last year), a plan for collecting submissions, organizing them, having things ordered for film previews and the schedule for film previews publicly listed on paper and on FB (will draw people to the previews) and a plan to make a program the day in between film previews and film finals- have the basics of the program already in place so all you have to do is place the actual film info in. and having this online as well (work with FB publicity)
Print Traffic/Technical Screening Consideration: Once the submissions are collected, they will need to be labeled, organized (work with programming) and all the film DVDS need to be pre-tested to make sure they play, and all the quicktimes need to be opened to make sure the files are ok. Once the films are selected, a DVD of the program (and 2 back ups) needs to be made and tested. For film prints, it needs to be decided how it will be coordinated with the films on dvd. A list of the film order needs to be clearly layed out and communicated to the projectionist.
Venue/Volunteers: A list of needs for the film reception and film finals event needs to be made. What special considerations and arrangements need to be made based on the venue. How to get people from reception to event. And list of volunteers needs, jobs and coordinated effort.
Trailer: Making trailer: come up with idea/theme, timeline/action line, film, edit, plan to distribute (work with PR). Note should be done as soon as possible to distribute.
2/26/2010 we will break into committees and start making action plans and timelines for film finals related tasks.
Curating a shorts assignment is Due March 5
Interview Assignment Modified
I opened the interview options up, so you can interview a programmer, or someone who does another job related to film events/festivals- like sponsorship, publicity/marketing, print traffic, technical venue operations,volunteer coordinator, web master, development, distribution - so we can learn more about the various roles people play to make a film festival happen. If you will be doing sponsorship etc for our film event, it may be useful to interview someone and get ideas this way.
Field Trip 3/19/2010 to San Francisco Arts Commission Panel : You can get a taste of the grants and funding side of things. More details in class. Link to SFAC in curric.
Your task is to view these 7 videos and curate them in a shorts program. DUE Friday March 5, 2010
Come up with a program title
Write a one paragraph description of the program
Write 1-2 sentences about each film (you are welcome to google the films and adopt the pre existing copy if it works, otherwise, come up with your own language). The format should be: Film Title Directed by Filmmaker Name (TRT: min:seconds)
Post your shorts curation on this blog (title Blog: Curating Shorts: title of your program (your name) and don't forget to label it "Assignment: Curating Shorts" in the label tab.
Include a 2-4 sentence curator statement in the end articulating your intentions.
Note: You do not need to embed the videos...it can be more like a list, in the order listed above.
For an example of shorts program write ups, check out the shorts program section of the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (they have snazzy titles and good descriptions- you can find the shorts programs by selecting shorts program under the View Events for tab and when you are at that page, you need to click on the films to read their descriptions).
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Videos to curate (Note these are not in order, you decide the order they best flow in). Consider how you are building the program- thematically, topically, by genre, by form, aesthetics, niche or a little of everything.
The Chestnut Tree by Hyun-min Lee (4 min 8 sec)
A Boy's Mouth by PJ Raval (5 min 26 sec)
Slip of the Tongue by Karen Lum (4 min 15 sec)
The Apollos by Nick Parker and Jazmin Jones (5 min 58 sec)
I attended a film screening at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival for this assignment. It wasn’t a shorts program like you preferred but the feature was screening with a preceding short film. The feature film was a documentary titled God Went Surfing with the Devil and the short film was titled Goofyfoot. The content of the films both covered surfing but the feature was a documentary and the short was a fiction piece. Many films in the festival were about surfing and were often screen together in similar manners. The most interesting thing that added to the content of the experience is that both filmmakers had a Q&A session after the films. There input made it far more interesting and we got to learn things that are not put into films, through their inside stories and their live emotions as they told them. The of the collar Q and A was my favorite part of the experience. It was shown at Victoria Hall, so it wasn’t really a movie theater but it did have leveled stadium seating so the view wasn’t obstructed at all, that is unless your really short and the person in front of you is very tall. The projector was very sharp but the festival’s intro/ trailer video looked sharper then the other films, but they still looked good. The first floor holds 170 people and the balcony hold another 120, and the festival spokes person said it was pretty much a full house that night. The audience had good reactions during the film, they were more interested in the feature film more then the short during the Q&A. Some thing trick about such a large and open festival is the ticket and admission system. With the system used there many people are turned down and don’t get into the film because several of the pictures fill up completely, they don’t sell individual tickets for each show in accordance to seat, everyone buys pass to any show and its a first come first serve. They gave out “Q” an hour before show time and each as a number that designates when you go in. On top of that there are special VIP passes that bypasses this entirely so they can fill up the theater and the “Q’s” can exceed the number of seats available. It would make some sense to sell specific tickets to each film that sell out in accordance to the available seating. Below is a link to the festival’s web site and the film’s, also here is a picture of the festival program.
FOR EACH TOPIC, AS PEOPLE 1)IF THEY WOULD BE INTERESTED 2)WHAT WOULD THEY WANT TO HEAR....
Running List of Possible Panels/Talks on Friday during day students would be interest in
*Career Panel: Hear from alumni what they did at state and what doing now...to give current students an idea of paths for future... (and def want Pat jackson) (Haroon said school does for recent grads find out more)
*Career Panel of Indepenent Filmmakers- How do you do it?
*Panel of Film Festival People About Getting Your Film In: Give students ideas of how to get films in festivals or Distro 101 and new methods of distribution (indie go go all that jazz, new media, new world of self distribution)...
*From Filmmakers, Organizations/Consultants about new media market plans etc....separate from above or same? and or resources...(get someone from WithoutABox, CSU Media Interns/Evan), somebody on how to use internet to market films etc)
*Distribution 101 (what would want from this)
*Local Resources/Media Arts Organizations (BAVC, Film Society, CSU Interns, etc, ?SF MOMA, PFA) and Grants (Arts Comission etc)
*Cinematography come and show films and break it down (Like Ellen Kuros) or Sound and break it down (Pat Jackson; her cuts and process of making)
*OPEN ENDED_ANYTHING NOT ON OUR LIST?
*** *Faculty Interviews: What would you want to hear from them? and How? (Audio Interview, 2 minute video interview, written interview on blog, post on facebook). as Panel for Event...Hat of questions, different faculity pick question...if you had any kind of budget what kind of film would you make...(maybe use in trailer- memories, funny things)
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Screening/Program Idea: *Screening Faculty Member Films (students would want to see) and have them talk about it...
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On our Facebook; what kinds of things of things would you want to hear...
Travelling in Egypt: An attempt to communicate (It isn’t simply a place; it is, itself, an experience.)
Curator’s Statement:
Three years ago, I, haphazardly, took a spring break trip with my very long time friend, Jack Foley, from Florence, Italy to Egypt. Not just Cairo, or Alexandria, but Egypt, and even now, 3 years later, I can’t simply adjust to separating the experience into smaller, more communicable parts. While I am able to make sense of Florence, where we were studying abroad for 3 months, and differentiate it from Rome, Carravagio, Capri, Napoli, or CinqueTerre, I can’t look back on Egypt as anything else except a single, ineffable experience.
I went from this,
to this,
and as stereotypical and cheesy as the last picture seems to be, there is no easy way to explain the incredible, profoundly serious difference that it has had in my life.
This might have been because, unlike in Italy, Jack and I had no real idea, plan, or expectation of what our experience in Egypt would be like. Instead of coordinators and well thought out travel plans, we only had our amazing friend Katherine Grant to burden, who had been studying at the American University in Cairo, along with a very thoughtful and life-saving suggestion from her to purchase a copy of the Lonely Planet’s guide to Egypt. There is nothing better that you can buy for 17 euro than this book when going on a trip like ours. Keeping this in mind, Katherine was the only person that could have guided us through this maze of history, building and twisting into itself, while keeping us from being taken advantage of (or rather do her best) and stay sane. However, she did feel like she was keeping us insulated from the rest of what could be found in Egypt, so she took us with her to Alexandria, on a field trip to some of the oldest pyramids in Saqqara, on a camel ride to those in Giza, and of course, the historic sites of Cairo.
Here is just a taste of Egypt, in the market of Khan el-Khalili in the Islamic District of Cairo. To preface the video, however, I will ask for your forgiveness in the uncontrollable shakiness of the camera. I was trying hard to be anymore conspicuous than I was already by taking pictures, and I held my camera as if I couldn’t decide on what to capture or even stop for a second to take a picture. This whole time, I was recording this video as I was walking, and thus it mostly follows my body and head movements, as we make our way through one of the busier parts outside of one of the oldest mosques in Cairo. While incredibly hard to follow, the video does convey a real visceral sense of what it is like to be there in the middle of this teeming, 24 hour marketplace without any clue or idea of where one actually is and being unable to separate one moment from the next. Subversive, documentary, annoying, respectful, violating, raw and unfiltered, expressive, or useful and pragmatic? I’m sure you will have your own opinion.
Feel free to ponder over these points of curiosity that I have posted on the video’s main page: How many times or places can you find self appointed President for life, Muhammad Hosni Mubarak?
Where in the heck did that street vendor come from in the second half of the video, who talks to Jack?
What is Katherine talking about as we make our way through the crowd?
What is modern, and what is ancient?
What clothing is traditional and what is distinctly western?
What mosque is that on the left?
What Instrument is that that plays after the picture of Mubarak?
Jack and I explored on our own, with much encouragement from Katherine and even more reluctance on my part, and we made our way to the “City of the Dead “ in Cairo and the historic center of Islamic Cairo. I took far too many pictures, (about 10,000 pictures over our “spring break”) with much embarrassment from Jack. It is breathtaking to look back on the fact that we stood in some of the oldest mosques in Africa, saw the oldest (or second oldest) university in the world, and we saw some of Cairo’s poorest surviving in the mausoleum apartments, burning trash to make a living…
We saw cats everywhere, heard them making more cats while we were tried to sleep (or eating each other; it sounds about the same), and saw them lying dead in the streets being eaten by stray dogs or other animals. We heard the call to prayer throughout the city every day, and I soon became used to the haunting and still comforting voices and songs that floated along the air currents of the city, causing many to stop what they were doing and pray on public mats in the streets or sidewalk corners, and caused others to say a small prayer while they went back to work, saving worship for later or shunning it all together. I got terribly sick, halfway through the week, whereupon my sinus infection in Italy replaced itself with a wheezing and racking, feverish cough. Making it worse, I was unable to escape the gray, dusty, cloudy, polluted air that you could taste, crunching in your mouth, between your teeth, indoors and everywhere throughout the city. We tried to go see the weekly sufi dancing in the park on the outskirts of the city, only to find out that it was in another park, which then led us to find that it was back where we came from, and eventually we were lead to find out it was on a completely separate day; Katherine berated herself for underestimating Egypt and was reminded, apparently, that one needs a Plan A, a Plan B, a Plan C, and so on until you run out of letters in your own language and you have to use another’s. We couldn’t touch ANYTHING without fear of catching some disease, such as tuberculosis, and we had to shower (which was really a “hot” water faucet tap over a raised square of tile and floor…standard student living and it kind of reminded me of Italy) without swallowing any water since the tap water alone could give us dysentery, or at least the runs. Cars pile on cars and the crosswalks and lane markers are only there for the tourists; crossing the street is an art form, as was shown to us by a little old lady who pulled up her burka, ran across oncoming traffic, stared down a bus, and weaved her way through slow and fast moving vehicles. Jack got hit by a car, instead, halfway through our trip. Not hard, but enough to get the message across that every moment we spent walking in the roads was borrowed time. The country itself is a nation state, built on top of Islamic resurgence, on top of British Imperialism, atop French colonialism, atop Ottoman rule, on top of Muslim conquest, in Christian independence, over Roman domination, Greek insinuations, and finally, the original, ancient Egyptian civilization, giving it a story that can be shared with the world, and making it unique unto itself. I am still afraid that I could possibly have TB, and I am incredibly jealous of my friend who got to study there, in spite of the bombings at Khan el-Khalili that took place not two years before our time there…
And I loved every second of it. Blisters, pains, sickness, threats and all, it was worth the time well spent.
Spending just one week here felt like I had crammed a year’s experience into a single, breathing moment, and I only have a few memories, too few photographs of myself, and not enough time to be able to relive and communicate this incredible experience, travelling in a world at the beginnings of humanity’s dash to the present.
Before reading the poem below, please press play on the “audio” clip shown here, and listen to it while reading
Ithaka
As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery. Laistrygonians and Cyclops, angry Poseidon-don't be afraid of them: you'll never find things like that on your way as long as you keep your thoughts raised high, as long as a rare excitement stirs your spirit and your body. Laistrygonians and Cyclops, wild Poseidon-you won't encounter them unless you bring them along inside your soul, unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope the voyage is a long one. May there be many a summer morning when, with what pleasure, what joy, you come into harbors seen for the first time; may you stop at Phoenician trading stations to buy fine things, mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony, sensual perfume of every kind- as many sensual perfumes as you can; and may you visit many Egyptian cities to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind. Arriving there is what you are destined for. But do not hurry the journey at all. Better if it lasts for years, so you are old by the time you reach the island, wealthy with all you have gained on the way, not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey. Without her you would not have set out. She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you. Wise as you will have become, so full of experience, you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
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Thank you for coming along with me on these little adventures (as verbose they may be...), and I hope you will find the will to have as many and more traveling experiences of your own. Happy travelling!
Travelling Indirectly:Revelation as exploration, and traveling by way of different kinds of experiences.
"Happiness has to do with reason, and only reason earns it. What I was given was the thing you can't earn, and can't keep, and often don't even recognize at the time; I mean joy."
Ursula K. Le Guin (The Left Hand of Darkness)
Please! Play this "audio" clip before you go any further!
There is no time for dark and idyll shallows; nor for bland and yearning bores;
Come see the world instead, and learn happiness, ever more!
Though it may seem indirect
and only virtually exposed!
Experience awaits,
audacious and unclothed!
Seek me, reach me
beyond land and sea,
Don’t hesistate—
For a second now!
Come and find me!
Our first point in our travel around the world is perhaps not well known, and is slightly off the available path.The city that it’s in is incredibly well known, but the place we are going to start from is an apartment building near the corner of Via Della Conce.Why?Simply because that is where I started from!What better reason is there than that?!
When you click on this link, you will see what I see, and you will be able to walk the paths that I walk.Sometimes I am a person, just like you, placing foot after foot, trying to get from one place to the next.Other times, I am the place, the city of arrival and your next destination.In any case, try your very best to find out what and where I am, and always feel free to walk off the beaten path, and explore!Getting terribly lost, is half the fun of travelling, so feel free to mislead, yourself, and let me know what made your trip all the more worthwhile.
Come now, and follow my path as I walk from here to the Piazza Della Republica!Along the way, make sure that the “PHOTO” & "VIDEO" check box under “MORE” in google maps is clicked, so you can zoom out and see, at your leisure, the many important sights and artwork of Florence (Firenze).Go full screen and take a look at the Ponte Vecchio, and do walk across it and zoom out and take a look at the many photos that others who have come here, have taken!Take a detour and go up to the Piazzale de Michaelangelo and take a look across the city, or go further up the hill to a church where Gregorian chants can still be heard to this day!Or, if you have had your fill of The Duomo of Florence, L’Accademia which houses Michaelangelo’s David, continue down the set pat to the Piazza Della Republica and see if you can figure out what city this next clue is pointing you towards!
Scroll down when you think you have it, or you want to move on.
Please!Take a look around!I hope that clue wasn’t too hard to unpack, but if you haven’t guessed it by now, the city is Rome.
Get the hang of it?These clues are merely here to pique your interest and to guide you around and help you get used to the idea that with any place you want to go, you do in fact have the ability to get there!You might not be able to go there in person, yet (due to money and any other number of legitimate reasons) but never think that you will never ever be able to see or know anything about the rest of the world around you! The world is at your disposal, you only need to look, opportunities abound, and you have only need to ask!
Now for somewhere completely different:
I am the middle kingdom
I am the seat of heaven
I am the mandate
The seat of Zhou
Andthe city of western peace
My clay army sleeps
Now unearthed
From the sands
You might have to do some searching around for that one, but how about I give you easy one, and let’s take a look at the tallest mountain on earth?
Make sure you have satellite view enabled!Pictures and Video too!
Here’s another clue!
A city divided
A wall between
East and West conquered,
With its population in the seams
No greater symbol of a war
That barely reaches a simmer
I am whole
But I still remember
Fire
And the reich
How about this one?
When Americans see me,
They are ready to become expatriates
I taught the world to love
And to pity when I fell
The grand boulevards are full again
And triumph remains
A steel tower makes obvious
My in-duplicable fame
There are many more places to go,
And many more places to be.
However our time together is very little, it seems…
That being said, here is one more clue!This time there is a video to help give you an idea of where this place is.It’s not so easy to see, but listen all the same.
What city am I?
What city am I?
I have numbers in the sands close by that can unlock the stars
I drink and live on the waters that give the gift of empire
I am the city of a thousand spires
I am a city of scholars
Of empires’ might
My remains are famous
And are carefully withheld
Preserved by outsiders,
And treasured as well
The capital of capitals
For all the lands to see
I am a riddle, an enigma
I am,
victorious
Curator's statement: I really wanted to convey, in some way, the experience of traveling abroad and its impervious ineffability. It is impossible to condense even a short adventure into one experience, but I thought that by creating a more interactive journey that I could help guide someone, though perhaps only on a one-to-one basis, through an adventure of a different kind. Though it is nothing like actually being able to spend some time in a different country and live the fear, the joy, the wonder, and the confusion (all of which are great), I hope that at least a sense of excitement can be found in this little journey, and that many more to come will happen as a result!
As for where we go to next?
Here is a clue, even though it will become apparent that the end of this experience blends perfectly into the next one:
