Christopher Vitiello
kreyg18@yahoo.com
Project: Play
Chris, aka C-dog, is a documentary filmmaker who explores the depths of the human mind and communicates his artistic ideas to the world through his films. At UCSC he engages in the study of culture and hopes one day to create an ideological discourse that transcends culture and brings solace and inner peace to those who are ready..
Reflections:
Is it over? I cannot grasp this idea; more or less believe
it...what a grand experience and how much I have learned. The meditation
of last week inspired me to write this in hopes of making this whole story
somewhat of a reality. I first want to say thanks for making such a class
possible. I love documenting culture- two topics that I will battle till
my last days. I have said many times, if it were a major I would take
it. But for now one documentary at a time. This documentary pushed my
limits emotionally, mentally, mindfully, and even physically.
The last two weeks have been constructed on finishing this project. I
have been thinking, dreaming, and eating ideas non-stop. Every dream seems
to become a potential for documentation or manipulation of abstractions.
For this project it was hard to reflect the meaning of the culture within
the form that we chose, because in the loosest sense we almost contradicted
the integrity of the culture on the whole by bringing the subjects together
within the same spacial context.
The one way I feel we got around it, and I could just be saying this to
make myself feel better, was by separating them through the music and
not really giving them any agency in terms of facial expressiveness. This
way I felt as though the audience can see that we are controlling them
in a way...I also want to comment on Julie's entrance into the film. At
first it appeared to be unintentional, yet intuitively I know we did it
for a reason...if one were to listen closely to the voices during the
time elapse sequence of Julie standing on the bridge, it is every response
to the questions we (Julie) asked. In that sense Julie became a catalyst
for their response and thus is literally experiencing what they experienced.
A sort of imaginative empathy if you will. While the voices are speaking
it almost appears as if they are telling her right then and there. So
in a sense it can be viewed that they are in fact the ones in control...Some
of my uncertainties lie within the sequences. Part of me wishes we fiddled
with more editing techniques, but the other part that the whole idea of
'special effects' would take away from the piece.
I am really happy with the decisions we made because I feel as though
it not only reflects their thoughts, but also shows our artistic interpretations
of their thoughts, and thus ultimately shows our thoughts as well...I
really am proud of everything in this piece- from the music that they
were listening to, to the theory behind the visuals, to the things that
they said, to the abstract images and sounds in the beginning that almost
seems out of place- its all just so amazing that what is now in the form
of a film existing within the confines of a mini-Dv was once in our heads.
That was the beauty of this project- the expressiveness endured.
I have so much to be thankful for...all of the people we met I would be
friends with if I had the chance, all the people in the lab were more
than helpful, all the people in class were more than helpful, all of the
kids ion the lab were great company, Shelly was so supportive with artistic
and creative freedom, something I hope I didn't take for granted, and
most of all Julie and I were able to develop our friendship further...
I don't think there are many people in the world who could sit in a room
with me in front of a computer for 44 hours and maintain a positive, comical
outlook, be so dedicated, so creative, tolerate my
stubbornness, and just have fun with it all. WOW!
If nothing else I am glad that my film takes on some sort of tangible
form to remind me of all of this...hopefully we can do it again some day.
C’est la vie