February 11, 2010: Idea/Research Post

Last semester I took a filmmaking class with Jake Dodd. At the beginning of class I felt really enthusiastic and excited to create a film, but the excitement quickly turned to dread as I found programs like Final Cut and DVD Studio Pro, etc. to be extremely time consuming and difficult. I really struggled in that class until the very end when I really pulled my final film together into a piece that I was really proud of!

As inspiration for my film I was told (by Jake, and now Paul) to check out Alan Berliner's film "Wide Awake: Portrait of an Artist as Insomniac." The film was absolutely brilliant...and the fact that Alan Berliner was not only a filmmaker, but fellow insomniac, made me optimistic about creating work about it. I recommend this film to everyone, because his films leave no detail overlooked. It is obvious, after seeing such a personal film, that he is not only talented, but extremely successful in creating his films.

My idea is to create work similar to the footage I captured for my short film. I really enjoyed filming and thinking in a still photographer's mindset. It was hard for me at the time to figure out how to film or what to film, but after shooting some footage, I came to realize that utilizing my knowledge of still photography (composition, lighting, mood, etc.) really helped me create a story...

More recently I have been photographing homes at night, taking careful notice to shoot the subtle evidence of fellow insomniacs that dwell and exist within these houses...by shooting the glimmer of light that leaks out onto the lawn from the window during the late night hours, the street light that illuminates the asphault at 4am, etc.

More recently, my idea is to not only shoot these night scenes, but to also try and blur the subject to help illustrate this sense of the surreal that insomniacs feel as a result of being extremely overtired...