DARK DAYS

I recently watched a film written and directed by documentarian Marc Singer. The documentary Dark Days, released in 2000, deals with the issues of a certain group of homeless people. Singer reveals an underground community living in an abandoned subway tunnel under Manhattan. The film is shot entirely in black and white and has a very homemade sense about it. These characteristics help illustrate the grungy and gritty conditions this homeless neighborhood lives in. The opening of the film uses a number of pan shots, as well as a very bumpy tracking shot which used the tracks from the old train. These techniques captured their complete environment. The combination of low angle and wide lenses created a deep depth of field which exposed seas of endless garbage. Long lenses shot dozens of rats crawling through these people's make shift homes. The majority of the film is shot with a handheld camera in a voyeuristic documentary style. Singer films the homeless people going about their day to day lives in the tunnel. He used medium shots to capture the person, and the activity they were doing at the time. Extremely dim lighting, shadows, and contrasts are seen throughout the film until the homeless community is forced from their homes to move above ground. Once they were settled into apartments for the homeless, Singer used strong lights to illuminate the ecstatic people and their new homes. This technique shows the people's victory after years of living in the dark tunnel.

The technical choices Singer used made a large impact of the film. With low angles, pan shots, and a list of other techniques he was able to accomplish a very raw and dirty look which reflected the homeless people's conditions. The movie makes constant use of these techniques until the end. The end of the film signifies the end of life in the tunnel. To express this feeling Singer used strong lights and medium close ups of the individuals being interviewed. This shot works well to capture the smiles and expressions of the newly happy people. The low budget amateur style techniques were great decisions made by Singer to expose this issue.

The Museum of Moving Image

A few days ago I had an obligatory opportunity to visit the Museum of Moving Image. I was pleasantly surprised with my findings, not that I thought it would be boring or anything, it was just better than I had expected. I participated in a number of hands-on demonstrations which happened to be very informative and fun. I can defiantly say that each demonstration had taught me something new, but the one I was most fond of was looping. Looping is the process undertaken during post production that enables you to improve the sound quality of dialogue. Many of the lines in films must be looped for various reasons, such as poor sound quality, dubbing in foreign languages or to make something sound more authentic. I knew of looping before but had no idea how complicated it could be. During the demonstration I was in a sound booth watching a scene on a screen and listening to the lines of a particular character (I chose Babe). After watching the scene I had to recite his lines matching the movement of his mouth. It sounds pretty simple but it's not. It was difficult to speak in-sync with the character and it took me a few tries. Granted it has to be easier for the professionals but I can only imagine how frustrating looping can potentially be for an entire movie with multiple characters. If you ever find yourself at the museum I also recommend one of the animation demonstrations. You rearrange various objects and record a picture of it. This process is repeated hundreds of times but when played back it's a clip. I made a short clip about frogs doing flips, anyway it was very exciting and I think the museum was a great experience.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. I don't have much to say right now. Actually, I already had my welcome blog up that was a little more inviting but I lost it. Yeah, I lost it, so anyway I welcome you now. Feel free to read my rants, complaints and nonsense. If you can still stand me by the end of the semester I'll tip my hat to you.