The Lux Quartet

What started as a simple one-film project has turned into something more. I’ve found sometimes that light is something stationary and utilitarian. With this quartet, I gave it the leading role.

 

 

This was intended to be one-and-done. It was simply keying out the night sky and compiling the footage into one piece while putting it to music. After featuring it in some school exhibitions as well as here, I felt like there was more that could be done.

 

 

While the light in Pacem in Lucem was originally stationary in real life (streetlamps on an Ohio road), I wanted something more spontaneous. By using fireworks, I found that the light had no set direction other than “up”. Even then, some go in different directions, uncertain of where to go.

 

 

Here, I find that when you slow things down, the medium becomes more meditative. The music in question is nothing more than a string sample and a keyboard sample slowed down several times. The lights like to dance to the music. Instead of the usual techno-heavy spectacle from the original footage, I give them time to shine before their big finale.

 

 

I figured that the best way to finish the series would be to combine efforts. I found that Norman McClaren did the same thing and made a third film out of Horizontal and Vertical. Unfortunately, the file size was far too large for me to upload so the overall piece is shorter than the original form by a minute. If I do get the resources to do so, then it’ll happen.

The color is removed from the light so as to keep it pure. At the same time, I did not want music for this piece. I took a cue from Stan Brakhage and omitted sound entirely. I realize that when I submit this particular film that I need to add a note requesting that there should be no music when it is screened.

Presently, I’m prepping for senior project as well as some other small experiments with fractal noise, color correction, and lighting. I would like to some of these screened at other festivals, in part or as a whole. This means I have to look outside northeastern Indiana.

Visio in Utero (Visions in the Womb)

Ultrasounds help to some extent to let us see what’s inside the womb. Frankly, I can’t tell what I’m looking at in the original form though I suppose I don’t have any recollection from my days in utero.

Originally, this was supposed to be one minute long but due to size of the original file (2.2 GB), I had to trim it down to this as well as some major compression. It was essentially the same thing as this but each clip was time-stretched to fit one minute. The original video will be shown at school when the time comes and maybe on Vimeo if I upgrade.

WONKA

What would happen if Willy Wonka was a horror film? What’s that? It’s been made into a recut horror trailer before? But not like this! There is strobing towards the end, so this is your warning.

After this creation, I have received feedback that this is by far the creepiest version of Wonka that they’ve seen. I’d say that me and my group partner have achieved our goal. Click if you dare.