Project 3

from the makers of STOP

Comes a trashpiece

MOMI visit

In the MOMI, there were only a few exhibits. The exhibits, or rather, the lack thereof, served as a reminder how brief the history of film as mass media really is. In the first exhibit, there were several portraits of movie stars from early on in hollywood, seemingly frozen in time, which set the mood for the rest of the gallery spaces. As we walked further there was a short film playing showing iconic moments in film from the early ages of film through the 80's. It was awe inspiring because there were so many short moments that were immediately recognizable despite the very short history of cinema. There were numerous props from movies throughout the museum, which in a way broke away some of the "magic" from my mind about how movies are made. It was overall a pretty profound experience in many ways, mainly because it laid so much of film's history out for the viewer to walk through and observe. All these items and installations hovering frozen in time, serving as a reminder of such a short, yet vastly impactful history.

In the "Don't Stop Me Now" scene from shaun of the dead, clever continuous shots as well as the sharp cuts add to the entire mood of the scene, which ranges from intense to comedic. Overall the edits lead to a very fast paced scene. At the very beginning of the scene we are treated to a few rapid edits which build the tension but help to balance between a tense yet comedic tone. the camera movement also adds to the tone by switching from slow pans into fast camera whips, which are used to seamlessly edit from the point of view of the character to the next subject. This works well because of the constant movement on the horizontal axis, and makes the edits hardly noticeable with the fast paced action as well as the sound cues from the song. The song keeps the pace up with multiple whip pans/edits. The reason that it feels so seamless is a mixture of the nonstop camera movement as well as the fast paced style of editing, where most of the shots, with the exception of a few, aren't held for very long. It keeps the scene visually interesting while also bumping up the speed of the movie from relatively slow to much faster.

Media Sound Project

Patrick Diaz Sound walk

On Buhre avenue in the Bronx I was surprised that there was such a depth of sound despite being relatively in the middle of nowhere. I started off right by my house watching my surroundings. As cars and people passed by most of what I heard was the crunching of the snow and conversations. The first sound I heard was the scraping of a shovel against the ground while my neighbor shoveled snow. As I walked further down I heard the music from the passing cars. As I walked further down that avenue I heard glaringly loud music coming from a baseball themed karaoke bar.  I lingered around this street for a while and heard the train announcement overhead and the excessively loud sound of the rails screeching as the train skidded across it. I heard the doors open from the train as it arrived in the station. While I was listening to the train I was startled by the sound of a snow plow smashing its way through the snow and scraping across the gravel.  I continued walking and heard a smash on the cement as a woman fell in front of me, and the sound of my knee hitting the snow as I slipped from black ice. as I walked away the sound of the karaoke bar faded to the background and the only sound immediately apparent was the crunching of the snow beneath my feet and beneath the shovels of the people I was passing along the way. In the background I continued hearing the scraping of snow as a man walked by singing a song at the top of his lungs. The sound became more apparent  as his companion sang along with him. As they approached me their voices were muddied by the sound of their footsteps as well as a second train passing by above us. I climbed the stairs to the train station and heard the clinking of metal from my footsteps as I climbed the steps to get on the train.

Define a Space

STOP from Patrick Diaz on Vimeo.

Exercise

Hunt from Anna Braga on Vimeo.

artist's statement

I am looking to explore visual and narrative elements of the media spectrum. I would like to create things that use what I know, as well as what I am learning to create something that I can be proud of. I would like to explore aspects of different kinds of narrative, especially in video, to create content that will be relatable to as wide of an audience as possible. I would also like to explore the differences in creating Media collaboratively as well as by myself. By doing these things I hope that I can learn something new about myself, as well as create things that might help someone else learn something about themselves.