Alone life WWWaaasssttteeesss

Alone life wastes

This film was weird, it was if someone took those old film put it on a DJ track and started mixing it up. The constant backwards and forwards movement with slow motion going on in both directions and the way it cut from scene to scene was dismal. Though I was not impressed with the editing for a 1998 film sense I used to do the same thing with a video camera and a computer.
The neatest thing about the film was the sound, all the voices being played backwards in slow motion really made it feel like you were listening to some sort of alien from outer space talking. The sound sounded so inhuman because you really never knew what they said because they only played about 10 seconds of the film in a real time actually without screwing with the motions. Certain sounds were funny other sound sounded like foreign languages or somebody trying to say something like a baby trying to get out some words. But most of the sounds just made me nauseated and gave me a slight headache.
I wasn't sure what the artist was trying to do by taking an old time Hollywood stereotypical film and mixing it up. At first I did not realize that it was one film I thought it was three different films cut together, the theory was shattered after the characters crossed over. Never having seen this film before the actual film not the chopped one, I have no idea of the plot or idea. By seeing the scenes that were shown I get the idea that the artist was trying to show the boy character or the mom character has a thing for each other just by the strangest scenes and sequences that were shown from the kisses and expressions of their faces. And that if you are a good singer you will sound awful in reverse.
Speculating that this film was originally a serious or romantic film my initial reaction to this revised version is that this film is a comedy. I thought it was quite funny the way it was chopped constantly taking one step forward two steps back and in three steps forward throughout the film. The constant moaning sounds and estranged movements like it was one long seizure going on its quite funny. The other thing that was quite funny is they took this film probably only about a minute of the actual now and just stretched it for about 15 minutes showing a real control of time. That time can be paused, fast forwarded, reversed, played in slow motion into the soul to a film that took place probably well before I was born shows real-time manipulation.

Database/Narrative

This database/narrative seems to be redefined in technology today especially through the computer as its main source of media. Though the words of database and narrative seem strange; we actually use them as a physical property everyday. Databases can be storages of information such as encyclopedias websites photo galleries and on and on with all sorts of information that can be stored on a CD-ROM computer that can just be picked up or selected at any time one chooses. At first databases are not as nearly storage facilities for data which they are but they are also this new source of media and interaction. In which one does research watches video clips were listened to the radio. Databases are set in a more machinelike manner where they work and operate like machines in a linear fashion like the assembly line. How things are organized in a certain order to make it easier to obtain what you want. They also mentioned how Vertov's film Man with a movie camera is very much like a database and how it has many clips taken at random and edited together. Since the film is lacking narrative is mostly database of clips shown in different orders as seen in the editing room with local clips labeled and stacked on shelves in some order.

Now looking at narrative we can see that it is much different from a database; where there is structure to narrative but in many cases it relies on you to do most of the controlling. For instance algorithms represent the structure in the narrative, algorithms of the code the rules that give boundaries to narrative. Such as inside video games which are more open than databases, video games still have boundaries or rules and structures that were created by this algorithm. To these games there is always a point or a goal of some sort where you must follow the rules of the game to achieve your goal in a sense you have to become your own algorithm to be successful at it. So since you're becoming part machine by following these rules in this artificial world to achieve an artificial goal. This interaction with the machine creates this narrative.

Often in today's world of media in computers we see databases and narratives combined to form hybrids and loops. Hybrids are often found systems like video game systems where there is a consul that stores your information and yet one is interactive with it where there is narrative by playing games. Also seen a lot in cinema how most films have a plot or narrative but not necessarily start out shooting in that order where they have a database of sequences that can be cut and pull together to form a final product which combines the two. To save time on many of these hybrids they use loops which is an automatic sequence repeats itself in a certain situation. These loops can be encountered in both database and narrative situations I when you press a button in a video game a character will make a certain sound every time or if you go to a website a certain movie will automatically play stuff does not necessarily in your control but automatically happens usually to save time and bandwidth.

Clearly the media of today is affected highly through narrative and databases through the use of computers and other related technology and as old cinema fades out new techniques or transitioning in to the New Age of looking at the world.

Memory time travel ( La Jete`e)

La Jete`e
Memory time travel

It is interesting to see everything in black and white photograph to tell a story that is in motion. The motion is not always movement in the pictures but motion through time and kind of space and is difficult to see that in pictures. When this time traveler goes back he does not use a machine per se rather he travels in his mind to the past. In a way he's traveling into his memories like one would reflect back on something that happened where he would remember something and be there. Every time he would go back into the past he would search for this girl, woman who he was infatuated with, it was interesting to see how every time he went back she would not be able to remember him but he could remember her. Sort of like him having a memory of a memory in which the memory just remember. When he would go back in time even though he was using his head he still looked the same as if he was in the present odd because usually in the mind you're able to change your perspective on things and appearances as well. There's another strange point where he's in the past with the woman and she points to a Sequoia that's been cut in half and you can see the rankings around that symbolize time and she points to a particular time to say something and he points off the tree to an empty space where the tree has not grown that far yet and he says that's where he's from the time in the future. And the whole shadow and a black-and-white photos and how that expresses emotions of each individual character in the photo is interesting because you're able to see things in an unusual way that express emotions like suffering or fear and you're able to somewhat eat off of it. Probably though the most unusual thing is the parallelism between the past and the present and how it's related. For instance as a child seeing some one die gave him this strange interactive imagination which in the future allowed him to travel back into time and ultimately be killed be that same moment that inspired him as a child, watching himself die.

The Effects of Machine Technology on Man

Jeff Rutgard
Man with a Movie Camera: The Effects of Machine Technology on Man

Man with a Movie Camera seems to take place during this peak time of industrialization where new technologies have been created for the first time for work and convenience of mankind. While this text supplies great confusion it also supplies lots of contrasts and range of emotions along with the range of music that is being played during the picture. Man with a Movie Camera shows ultimately the invasion of machines into our modern life and ultimately turning us into machines by our routine movements.

In this industrial age many new machines have been created and the picture shows them at first in flashes such as sewing machine, cash register, telephone, automobile, electric lights and factories just to name a few. These machines are shown separately and with human use to show that they are inanimate without human use. But with human use it appears that are able to do more work that is they're able to do it faster than before with the machine. Now you're seeing humans doing the same work that they've done in the past without machines but instead of doing whatever job they are doing by themselves are able to do a more simplistic part and repeat that part over and over again to achieve their task instead of doing many different tasks to achieve the same goal. This constant repeating like a machine action is turning people into a sense of being one with the machine, a Cine-Eye if you will. The texts shows this a number of ways for instance one way is it shows a dummy one that you would see in the department stores modeling clothes this dummy was using a sewing machine by some sort of stringed contraption showing the dummy sew on the machine as the machine was moving. Then it turned to a clip of a woman using a sewing machine doing the same routine movements back and forth but ultimately doing it faster than by hand. As dummies are models that are supposed to represent human this shows that we're turning into these machines by doing the same monotonous work and having on alive objects to do the same things that we are able to do. The assembly line is another example where were no longer completing a job from start to finish but we're merely a part of the machine completing only one minute detail. Like the picture in the film that had the lens of the camera and the human eye inside looking out showing how we are fusing ourselves with the machine eventually becoming one of them.

Now there were other ways of showing this throughout the film in the way of the music and contradictions to convey emotion. The film's tempo orientated itself around the tempo of the music so when the people were working in factories and the music was fast the people were working fast and when the music was slow the people worked slower. The music we change also on the emotion that is taking place for instance when someone was signing their marriage certificates happy music played and when someone signed divorce papers sad music plays, along with death and rebirth the music changes to the mood. There was also a great angle in contrast when it came to filming the camera usually shot below the people or machines and above the people or machines not usually right at eye level. These often down shots typically depicted the camera towering over the people kind of symbolizing how the machine is ruling the people who are little ants from the perspective of a camera. Another contrast was the idea of working all the time with machines to the idea of rest and exercise. It showed how people tended to gain weight it appeared by working with this machine and been more stagnant since the people were typically sitting down all day and working with their hands like the telephone operators. This led to the difference between people exercising by playing sports or the new thing which was people using machines to lose weight where the machine works and you do not.

This shows how technology has introduced itself into our livelihood and taken over the way we do things by making us more like them instead of the other way around.