Lena And The Blowfish: The Classics

Our art project took a step back in time, using a soundtrack from the 1780s and a filmic style from the 1920s. We came together to make a short music video to an operatic tune. Andrew used his knowledge of opera to choose a piece composed by Giuseppe Giordani titled "Caro Mio Ben." The lyrics, originally in Italian, tell the story of a woman who decides to kill herself after her lover leaves her for another woman. We all agreed upon the song and proceeded to choose a style to represent the song. We thought the films of the 1920s had visual elements that might help us tell the story (because the song is in Italian). The title cards and choppy editing added a lot to our film. Andrew and John recorded the song before we all went out and shot the footage. We had a vague idea of which shots we needed and how we wanted to film the story, but a lot of the process was done on-the-spot. We came up with ideas and a couple of story sub-plots as we were filming. It was a great environment for collaboration, where Lena incorporated her acting skills, taking some direction from me, while Andrew and John gave input and advice in the right places.

My roles in this project included cinematographer and editor. The cinematography was a very fun to take charge of, as it dealt a lot with capturing many small moments. Though I used the tripod sometimes, most of our film was shot handheld so we could get all the details and give the film more energy. The acting style we went for was that of the silent film era, when gestures were exagerrated and the actors had to use their bodies instead of words. We used different areas of campus as well as the rose garden across the street as filming locations. After recording about an hour of footage, the film was ready to be edited. I used FinalCutPro to string together a variety of quick shots that told the story while keeping the pace fast and energetic. I added the title cards as I went along, exagerrating the moments and letting the audience know what was actually going on. Because the title cards turned out being so straight forward and dry, they became the funnier parts of the film. To create the 1920s film style, I used a plethora of visual effects, including: flicker, blur, grain, noise, color correction, and vignetting. I took inspiration from the films of Guy Maddin. Once the project was cut and stylized, it felt like we had truly accomplished what we had set out to do. All of the elements, our varied talents, came together as we had originally hoped. Perhaps even more organically than we had once imagined. It was truly amazing to see this short film that originated from what seemed like a haphazard idea, and turned into a culmination of sorts - a musical, emotional, and visual experience.