Short: "Ants"

I wish that metaphor was new, or that it was shot or edited in a really fresh and new way, oh well could just be me.
 
I see this as a rough draft of a rough draft - push your ideas much further and give us a little more to chew on, at least formally if not conceptually.
 
well, in that light maybe it can become something like 'Koyaanisqatsi', if I remember correctly it (and Powaqqatsi) definitely had some imagery that really reminded me of how us humans are like ants (although perhaps were not as sophisticated as the ants are!) ;-)
 
Isn't it interesting how as human beings we want to make meaning out of something. We absolutely know nothing about what the director was trying to say, but we assume we know everything instantly. The fact is there was some footage of people walking around in their everyday life and some footage of an ant going about it's business. Nothing more, nothing less. Now having said that, there's a world of interpretation we can make. Aside from this rambling... Thought the footage looked like a home video and the ant crawling around was uninteresting. Some creative cutting and maybe even some insert shots, including really close ups of the ant would break up the scenes. Just a thought.
 
Isn't it interesting how as human beings we want to make meaning out of something. We absolutely know nothing about what the director was trying to say, but we assume we know everything instantly. The fact is there was some footage of people walking around in their everyday life and some footage of an ant going about it's business. Nothing more, nothing less. Now having said that, there's a world of interpretation we can make. Aside from this rambling... Thought the footage looked like a home video and the ant crawling around was uninteresting. Some creative cutting and maybe even some insert shots, including really close ups of the ant would break up the scenes. Just a thought.
 
tktk said:
Isn't it interesting how as human beings we want to make meaning out of something. We absolutely know nothing about what the director was trying to say, but we assume we know everything instantly. The fact is there was some footage of people walking around in their everyday life and some footage of an ant going about it's business. Nothing more, nothing less. Now having said that, there's a world of interpretation we can make. Aside from this rambling... Thought the footage looked like a home video and the ant crawling around was uninteresting. Some creative cutting and maybe even some insert shots, including really close ups of the ant would break up the scenes. Just a thought.
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Actually, it's not that interesting at all, as a matter of fact it's quite commonplace..

that's what art is, you put something out there and unless you spell it out with a summary of what it is, people are left to speculate. Now we could of course pose all of our observations with Politically Correct language like "perhaps the artist is trying to say blah, or perhaps the artist is saying wah, or better yet, maybe the artist is not an artist at all and is really a prankster just watching us spin our wheels debating art" Now that's the best kind of art!

Now that I think of it, it's comments like these that convince me that the ants are brighter than us all! ;-)
 
AntLoversParkingOnlySign.jpg
 
I'm gonna take a guess at what's going on here...

Are we, as humans, the real ants - moving about in every which way, with not enough to do, while ants, as creatures walk calmly and independently, getting the job done?

Or maybe we as humans are simply akin to the ant population, and our sophisticated lifestyles should not be overshadowed by how ants press on, without the wide array of methods of assistance at their fingertips, as we are accustomed to?

Then again, as soon as they get stepped on, or illuminated too much, we as humans are the clear winner.
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The metaphor, here, is showing people one mindedly going about their buisness. That's all there is to it. This is an assignment I'm working on to make a film that makes use of intercutting.

I wish that metaphor was new, or that it was shot or edited in a really fresh and new way, oh well could just be me.
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Well, yeah, it's not new.

I'm not trying to make some sort of masterpiece of cinema---I'm interested to see what you have to say on what I had fun doing in about an hour. You see? This is not a serious film, by any means.

Call me ant-like, but what exactly is the debate going on here? I think we can all agree we've seen more weird, and pointless footage on here just for the sake of saying "Hey, look at what my DVX did!" (my footage included).
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I wouldn't call this pointless. I would call it, not very sophisticated, odd, not apparent, whatever. But "pointless" isn't even a concept among "art": if Andy Warhol did this *exact* same thing, it would be called ingenius.

I agree. I can see the shot now of the ant - an extreme close up, static camera shot. For the people walking about, myself, I'd choose a brighter day, get more sky in the shot, and color correct to put a somewhat washed out haze over everything. You could try playing with motion effects too - that is, speed up the crowd, and slow down when an action occurs you want to highlight.
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Now we get into a gearhead sort of discussion, which is exactly the sort of thing I try to avoid and get down to actually working. This was shot at sunset, I think it's beautiful. The light, anyway. As for the static shot of the ant, I'll try it.

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The thing here that I actaully am proud of (and let me tell you-I'm sure you guys have all moved onto far more sophisticated filmmaking techniques) is the camera movement - as soon as one person is concealed (closure) then another person is followed right next to them (reveal). I liked that alot.

BTW, I appreciate all of your comments and opinions - it helps me alot.
 
I sincerely hope you continue to post your ideas and your footage, I think it takes a lot of patience to put up with the babbling that sometimes comes out of my mouth. Glad to see that you have a good attitude about it, look forward to seeing the next project!
 
work on the audio i think.... the background noise grabs too much attention when it goes to the shot of the ants, perhaps play the noise allthroughout the piece. What do you think?
 
i would try to vary your shots. not sure what you were going for- my head hurt with the movement when looking at the people. following the ant was pretty neat- i'd try to work on some cc and sound work now that you got this done. i think overhead shots of people would have been cool too- maybe if you got up in a building or something. just an idea for you.
 
Honestly, I only finished the vid just to see if something was going to happen. As already stated I would vary the shots, maybe add some music, for those of us who need it to keep interested in a flick like this.
 
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