The song is complete and the shot list is completely organized and is in the middle of transcription. The song came out to 26 pages and will last about 28 minutes. It uses three tempos across four sections to create a sequence tempos. The bar is set at 75bpm, followed by a slow tempo(60bpm), then fast(90bpm), then the sequence ends with a return to 75bpm. The video will run the same amount of time and also has four sections that line up with the sections of the piece of music. Instead of 75-60-90-75 the tempos in the film go 120-60-30-15. The huge change in tempo will make it so that one beat in the first section will be .5 seconds while in the last it will be 4 seconds. I think that the piece will come out to somewhere between 500-750 shots. The shots in the first section will range from .5 seconds to 5 seconds. In the last, anywhere from 4 seconds to 40 seconds. This will create an intense slowing from a manic barrage of visual information down to a contemplative, slow, mindful stare.
I imagine that the combined effect of the music and the video will be hypnotic. The viewer might find them self drifting in and out of focus as the piece directs their dreamlike thoughts. For me the pacing of the shots create a feeling similar to the effect that spending time in a new city can have on a traveller. The new pieces of information, abundant and easy to look at, add up so quickly that they fade away. To quote Roy Batty’s amazing improvised line in Blade Runner for an apt metaphor, “All those moments will be lost… like tears in rain.” But as we become more comfortable and begin to approach these new pieces of information more mindfully we find new ways of seeing and collecting our thoughts about the world around us. This trajectory is mirrored in the video and we are able to use our stronger, more attentive observational senses as the film becomes slower and slower.
Chance operations dictated the majority of the early organizational aspects for both the music and the video. When I was presented with the task of putting 2 things in order I would flip a coin and put the element that the coin chose first. With 3 things I would toss 3 different objects onto a piece of graph paper and the order that they landed from left to right would determine the order of the 3 things. With 4 things, as an homage to John Cage, I would consult the I Ching (throwing 3 pennies and reading them [all up is 1, 2 up 1 down is 2, 1 up 2 down is 3, and all down is 4]) and then I would put them in the order that the pennies told me to. I had no groups of 5, 6 or 7 things. And finally, for groups of 8 things I would consult any digits immediately available to my eyes (such as the numbers on the bar code on a pack of cigarettes [0034916483599273 would become 3, 4, 1, 6, 8, 5, 2, 7] or the amount of people sitting on the benches in the plaza [3 on one, 7 on the next, 1 on the next, and so on until a complete series of 1-8 has been found]) or any source of numerical information I could find. This practice frees one dimension of the music from intentional micromanagement and instead, through chance, allows the decision making powers of the universe take control.
I then refocus my attention from the parts as individual pieces (elements) to the next level of organization, cells. Cells are groups of 1 element from each group of elements (ex. duration, timbre, and pitch [ex. 10 beats, quiet to loud, high B flat]). The cells are usually grouped into packages (cell groups) of 4 cells. It is at this point that I begin to take the liberty of making intentional decisions. I create patterns out of the cell groups that illustrate their overall structure. One part of the overall structure is like a group of triplet siblings. Their parts look similar from far away but up close every little element is different. I used variations of stacking and repeating as well as other creative organization techniques to create the patterns.
The combined practices of chance based decision making and intentional decision making is much like the textile artists process of smashing pieces of glass and tile and assorting the broken parts into a mosaic. The artist knows that they have clear, red, purple, and light purple pieces of glass and tile and though they cannot control the outcome of the smashing process, they know that in the end they will have a clear, red, purple, and light purple mosaic. The difference between a mosaic and my piece is that a mosaic is (arguably) static in time whereas my piece moves through time. This vital element of movement (which includes complete replacement [ex. a shot change]) is what allows me to generate conflict between the parts or, as Eisenstein would call it, montage. As they move through time all the specific elements work in cooperation and in conflict to generating a flow of implications, ideas, and feelings. Some of these implications, ideas, and feelings will be obvious and others more mysterious. Some will be universally understood while others might resonate with as few as one person (ex. me).
I will give you a quick update on what my plan for the future is. The next week will be spent visiting all of the wonderful sights of Barcelona while shooting the video. When I return I will record the music in one of the studios on campus with three singers. This will likely take a week or two and during that time period I will also edit the video. Hopefully, my total pre-emptive organization of every single element will speed up this process. If I’m unlucky I wont have a completed project by the end of the quarter. If I’m lucky, I will have part of it completed by. And if I’m very lucky I will have a completed piece to show you all when week 10 rolls around.