neuroglyphix

StudioBlue

2010-10-23T12:41:00.000-07:00

As of 2010, neuroglyphix was officially retired as the moderately decipherable brand name that it is.

please see our new output of cinema works, currently known as StudioBlue <-- there & here --> on Vimeo

INNOCENCE: Director's Cut

2010-01-26T03:09:00.001-08:00

theauteurs Garage

|| Multicome ||

2009-07-11T11:54:00.000-07:00

Two lovers did meet,
so intense was their bond,
expression became a struggle.

|| Innocence ||

2008-12-25T04:07:00.000-08:00

Three unsupervised delinquents spend
an afternoon at the neighborhood park.

EARTH CITY

2008-12-01T13:11:00.000-08:00

an American puzzle

|| Portraits of Humans ||

2008-11-11T23:30:00.000-08:00

|| Swingset Time ||

2008-11-07T01:28:00.000-08:00

|| Midwestern Sunsets ||

2008-08-22T23:39:00.000-07:00

| Midwestern Renaissance |

= Poor Traits of a Vulgar Habitat =

2008-08-07T03:40:00.000-07:00

= Grapelin, the Katydid Leafbug =

2008-07-29T23:44:00.000-07:00

|| Fancy ||

2008-07-22T23:54:00.000-07:00

| a Blues movie |

|| Fleuri ||
| un Bleus film |

Cinema Is. ~ An Essay.

2008-07-11T23:59:00.000-07:00

Preamble

The following is an essay.

This is not a proper entrance

essay. I will now type the word 'essay' again.

Then the word repetition. 'Repetition'. Remember.

Belief is the mere spark of desire.

Cinema Is.

WHY CINEMA?

The reason cinema swoons us is its presentation of a world without us. Cinema has a life, essentially separate from our own, which lures us into the experiences of others. Such chemistry between cinema & its audience creates a bond which, if the film is effective, not only has the ability to stay with viewers for hours if not days afterward - haunting each participant with memorable provocative notions - it has the power to stay with a viewer for an entire lifetime.
“What you can't tolerate, you can't tolerate in images either. An image is just as compromising, since it stands for you”

wrote Catherine Breillat in Romance.

Images are confrontational. We watch because even the most passive of us crave exposure to happenings, adventures, exploits & escapades, if only as a third-party eavesdropping second-hand stories. Cinema is a testament to mankind's absolute fascination with experience.

Cinema gives birth only to saints, beasts, & cripples.
These graceful saints & resourceful beasts propagate progressive ideas & bear the scrutiny of mass-consumption, & therefore become timeless. Cripples are the majority, incontinent & slobbering, begging to be fed, gasping for acceptance. Unable to stand the scrutiny, natural selection sets in. Yet the regressive cripples succeed in numbing the mass-consciousness. They are Narcissus in a contagious reflection, proliferating certain inhuman stereotypes with unrealistic ideals & attitudes toward life & other people.
Despite predominant dumbed-down films, there is always the potential for The Thin Blue Line or The People vs. Paul Crump, which commuted men from their death sentences. Such an example is reason enough to pursue a vocation in the craft of moving images, to utilize it as an instrument of social change. Cinema as a cure for misanthropy, xenophobia, et al. For to change the way we see ourselves is an echelon of a noble action. Or is it?
A man in Los Angeles claimed after seeing Catch Me If You Can he set to work on becoming a fake airline pilot the next day. He spent New Years Eve 2003 in jail for causing a public disturbance when he was caught trying to board the plane. He said the movie had “inspired” him. If only for a short time, our own beasts & saints are brought out through such inspirations. Beasts skewer our comfortable daily viewpoints in such a maddening writhe we forget who we were before seeing it. Saints, eking unexpectedly, often require great patience. Saints are merely beasts of impenetrable tranquility. The cripples leftover sit stunted in thought, misapprehending all they see.

WHY CINEMA?
Because of a desire to influence generations to be more humane than all those past.
To get people to think larger than themselves. To educate the uneducated.

WHAT CINEMA?

Forced unoriginality has become the norm.
“Systematically lowered standards”

paraphrased Woody Allen.

This is the American sitcom laugh-track, demanding reactions, invoking fear of social acceptance. 'Everyone else is laughing, why aren't you?' Adam Curtis' The Century of the Self helps outline how & why there is manipulation in our cinemas. Luckily, not all filmmakers are so susceptible or venal.
Some have noticed a recent shift in French cinema around the turn of the century. An uncorroborated movement which, for lack of a more concise phrase, could be referred to as 'minimalist extremism'. Its formative tenets are most apparent in its female directors. The resounding pillars being Claire Denis & Catherine Breillat, both born in 1948 & contributing to cinema for the last thirty-odd years. Fellow Frenchman Bruno Dumont & Austrian Michael Haneke have each taken cues from these two pillars, at turns introspective, voyeuristic, & transgressive. Reverberations of the long-lasting effects of Rivette & Pasolini which blare out polarities. However, with M. Denis the word 'extremism' is meant in an entirely different context than the carnal. Rather than the presentation of humane underlurkings & visceral thresholds (often with an unexpected brutal climax, used as a valuable mnemonic effect) to which these other directors often attest, Denis works on a far heavier scale. In a fine-tuned way, Beau Travail & L'Intrus show that tone surpasses the efficiency of any plot. Or at least:
Tone limits any story's effectiveness. This principle is true of all Hitchcock. No matter how dense his plot stands, it is only as effective as the series of tones he prescribes to each sequence. The same principle cannot be applied to all cinematic work. Those which eschew plot cannot be held to the same standard as those whose goal is to tell an engaging story. For example, impressionistic documentaries (comme Koyaanisqatsi, Phantom India, ou Antonio Gaudí) are exempt from such a scale.
The scale is one of perspective. Weighted in probabilities. Accuracies. The psychopath is a human of incredible reason. The child, all sights are wonders. The lovers balance hope & doubt. The presentation of mood through pacing, composition & tableaux generate viewer responses to coincide with given perspectives.
Believability is governed by tone.

WHAT CINEMA?
That which enables a viewer to accept a given perspective as authentic & effectual.
The cinema which provokes thought by changing our perspective.

BUT HOW?
Remind people that cinema is ubiquitous. Every dream is cinema. Every horseride. Every working microwave. Remember the view out your window is always cinema.

HOW CINEMA?

Cinema has not yet reached its fullest potential.
Most are cozily stuck in the ways known to work to even consider attempting to bend & break its many formulas. There may be a few fauves left, a few Brechtian provocateurs, yet cinema has not grown into its fullest possible medium. Few beacons of light are left. American cinema has stumbled, been stunted, even placid, for decades. The creative innocence of 'Hollywood's Golden Age' has longsince been corrupted. The norm is watered-down en masse. Underhanded, this distillation is dishonest. To be true to cinema one must use its malleability to create new & increasingly engaging forms. Much has been left undone. To break the conventions, to use innovation, is to utilize cinema. We must progress the form. We must change not only the way people see cinema, but how it is shown. In foresight create new ways of watching. Imagine not a movie theatre or television but a hologram generating a micro-thin rectangle with seemingly pitch-perfect visuals. The word rectangle was used.
This is the recognizable to conventional cinema. A much simpler but more superficial way of progressing form, rather than improbably hope for hologram technology, could be to abandon this idea of 16:9 widescreen as the preferred canvass. Finding exemplars for using the 4:3 full-screen are easy (Citizen Kane). But why bother with rectangles? Because of tradition? Why not a film concept that utilizes a circle canvass? Or a triangle? Or a film about a maze in the shape of a heptagon? Who's to say it's not aesthetic? What about a series of films projected on a 3-dimensional undecahedron? Who's to say it's impossible? We must challenge such ideas with experimentation. For the art of using tangible film, celluloid itself, has long been dying. It is a future fact that there will be no more filmmakers – only digital moviemakers, cinemamakers. One should be so lucky to use 65mm & 70mm filmstock before it's all gone. If one is to compose in a rectangle canvass, it ought to fit a whole lot of Earth in the frame.

Claire Denis summed up the feeling of excitement in the production phase, saying: “During filming... there are moments when you have the right not to reply & to let things happen. Before the shoot, after the shoot, you have to account for everything.” When we are not lost in the love of capturing images, responsibility sets in. It has been said that a film can be edited wrong a billion different ways, & that there may only be a hundred, or a few dozen ways of getting it right. As preproduction allows imaginative vision to take root, postproduction enables proficiency of the form. Like a verb, montage is an infinitive game. We utilize editing to bind varying subjects & tenses.
In the trailer for Vérités et Mensonges, Orson Welles intones, “This lady, does she know more than she's telling? Or is she telling more than she knows?” This is both the essential paradigm of cinema, as well as its own romantic paradox. Tugging the question: How can we give the most accurate & honest depiction of the feeling of being alive, if by filming we are interfering & therefore influencing life's natural state?
Only interpretation knows.

|| It's Real ||

2008-04-11T23:47:00.000-07:00

| Material Tragedy at the Ol' Gas Mart |

|| C'est Vrai ||

|| Funny Thoughts ||

2008-04-01T23:07:00.000-07:00

| based on actual ideas |
| basé sur des idées réelles |

|| Pensées Drôles ||

|| Fugue of the Muse ||

2007-11-11T23:47:00.000-08:00

| an inspirational dramedy |
| an aspiring composer is visited by an intangible muse |

|| Fugue de la Muse ||

|| Mare ||

2007-11-07T23:37:00.000-08:00

| the allure of night |
| based on the Old Norse folklore of the Mare, a female wraith |

|| Jument ||

|| B ||

2007-07-11T23:20:00.000-07:00

| the phantasmagoria of yoga |
| a mystery of malleable plasma |

|| Perfect for Dancing ||

2007-07-07T20:16:00.000-07:00

| un Bleus film |
| a Blues movie |

|| Perfectionnez pour Danser ||

|| Object, Object, Verb ||

2006-12-02T22:59:00.000-08:00

| a surreal take on sound |
| two young men become lost in a strange winter forest |
| when they try to find where an incessant music is coming from |

|| Objet, Objet, Verbe ||

= Cimetière Crépusculaire =

2006-11-22T01:01:00.000-08:00

= Twilight Cemetery =
= Twilight Cemetery =

|| the Patience of Fools ||

2006-07-11T22:55:00.000-07:00

|| la Patience des Imbéciles ||

Part 2 http://youtube.com/watch?v=AjDBJhGxLBE

Part 3 http://youtube.com/watch?v=QsXAhkfVEQQ

Part 4 http://youtube.com/watch?v=2NBAiC138vw

= Divine Shadow Swirl =

2005-07-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

=Ombre Divine Tourbillon=
= Ombre Divine Tourbillon =

D.I.Y.

1991-02-25T04:03:00.000-08:00

DIY Class Layout RAW

Nathan Earl House
February 2009

...the Question Corner?

✔ x ★ ∞

Class:

D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself)
or...
the Art of Cinema on Earth
or,
Autodidacticism, an Ironic Lesson in.

“Those who know how to think for themselves need no teachers."

~ Gandhi

Prerequisites:

Script; Shoot – (EndNote 1
Films – (EndNote 2
Essay – (EndNote 3
Glossary – (EndNote 4

Table of Contents:

Autodidact ~ pages 1 - 2
Structure ~ page 3 - 4
Influence ~ page 5
Justice ~ page 5

~ Autodidact ~
Human Blueprint

Précis:

Multifacted Study of Earth Cinema,
Fiction & Nonfiction, through Workshops.

In-Class Workshops:

✔ Anthropological investigation of world cultures
& the cinema they produce.

✔ Psychological structure of composing narrative:
the struggle to express humanity;
the curiousity of the voyeur;
the safety of 'someone elses story'.

✔ Philosophical weight of time; cinematic pacing;
perpetual evolution; abstract patience;
reflective cinema; the how & why?

✔ Phenomenological 'experience' of cinema;
perspective, believability & tone;
the potential for 5-senses cinema...

✔ Satisfying the desire for expression in writing.

Students will be asked* to create shooting scripts (EndNote 1
Then film & edit, with consumer-grade cameras, on nanobudget.
They will be asked* to participate in class discussion
& view prerequisite films for course (EndNote 2
as well as all films shown in-class, for discussion.

Students must identify what type of films they wish to produce.
Comedy, Drama, Experimental, etcetera.

For those with varying tastes, they may choose accordingly per project.
Out-Class Workshops are independent as like-minded peers meet.

Work at your leisure, but work everyday no matter what.
If someone on your team gets hit by a car ~ film the ride to hospital.
Student may work solo, for safety's sake,
..individual expression is a good excuse too.
It is asked* to co-operate with others.

* “asked”, not required.

There will be no grading system.
Only constructive criticism & encouragement.

Out-Class Workshops:

Student must ALWAYS carry

Camera (film or digital)
Pens & Notebook

Mandatory everyday In-Class,
& Out-Class especially.
No exceptions.

~ Structure ~

“Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment.
Full effort is full victory.”

~ Gandhi

Storytelling:

Architecture of a story;
Prosody of dialogue;
Nuance of character.

Memes:

Each word memetic currency.
Gestures, patterns, & peers;
Prosody used as persuasion, deception & trust.

Evolution of a Character

Terms:

Prototype ~ Character ~ Patsiche/Parody ~ Archetype ~ Sterotype

Protoype, Patsiche, or Parody?:

What are You Creating?

Prototype

No Rules.
Create Your Own.
Empathy for, & within, each Character.

Patische

Pastiche – an imitation of an archetype or prototype
by adding another storytelling component.

Example: 'the ill-fated Lovers',
Romeo & Juliet are an archetype of
Pyramus & Thisbe, which is a pastiche of the prototype
Daphnis & Chloe, 'the Lovers' + tragedy.

Conceptual Pastiche ~ Glean.
Use drama you see around you.
Use comedy you hear around you.
Combine motifs in characters you interact with in real life.

Create a Phenotype ~ a True Individual.
Add layers of happenstance, emotion, & therefore, content.
This can be done through environment, interactions, reflection, tonality, etc.

Archetype versus Stereotype
the Delicate Balance of Nuance

Stereotypes:

'Stereotype' = Over-simplification.

'the Strong, Caring Mother',
'the Mask-of-Innocence Child',
'the Wise Old Man',

'Stereotypes' have no Self. No depth.
They are storytelling functions to evoke sentiment or scorn.
'Stereotypes' are a photocopy of a character.

To have a generic Mask Child or Supportive Mother is not enough.
Think of a stereotype as a charicature. There is only one layer.
From the point of view of the audience: Zero empathy.

Only a superficial judgement of character.
No density, value, or deterministic reason to their actions.
Only a series of MacGuffins to further the plot.

Archetypes:

'the strong, caring mother with
doubt & guilt for a significant other'

'the masked child whose innocence was
lost not due to upbringing, but rather
because of the childs' own impulsive temptations,
the learned memes, indirect corruption.
Phenotype born with no role model to lead by example.'

'the seemingly intelligent old man whose youthful wisdom derided
when his compassion turned to misogony & then misanthropy.'

Emotions are Never as Simple as they Appear.

~ Influence ~

"Man's nature is not essentially evil.
Brute nature has been know to yield to the influence of love.
You must never despair of human nature"

~ Gandhi

Any opinion can be changed with a particular combination of words.
The idiosyncratic, accented way a sentence, synopsis, & story are told.

For each Phenotype,
there are certain intuitive prosodies which flip unknown switches,
at its worst, persuasive language is used to dissuade or deceive,
at its most honorable, garnering trust through openness,
utilizing a tone of reasonableness with a person.

~ Justice ~
Vague Rules

“I realized the true function of a lawyer*
was to unite parties riven asunder.”

~ Gandhi
(: * replace “lawyer” with 'writer' :)

For each/every viewer,
any story with characters is inherently judgemental.
We have our reservations, which will be provoked.

Never give opinions on a film unless
you watched it from start to finish. Ever.
If you did not see the entire movie
one has not earned the rite of criticism.

A work of art must be seen in its entirety or the message is incomplete.
Its truth is therefore not fullgrown in the mind.

While your opinions are still developing
on a particular director, or film,
Refuse an opinion on their work,
or else remain agnostic to their oeuvre.

Expressing no opinion at all is more
honest than an uninformed opinion.

Every director must be given as
many chances as they have films.
By making a new film,
It gives oneself another chance to
enter the memory of an audience,
& therefore, be judged accordingly
by those un/familiar with their work.

Through cinema,
Perspective is judged by
artistic/entertainment value & believability.
Believability is governed by tone. (EndNote 3

~ EndNotes ~

(EndNote 1: Script; Shoot.

Shooting Script 1
Efficient in Post/Production

Students Learn:

★ A short film can be done in a single page;
~ A feature is doable in 10 to 20, sans dialogue.
★ It is beneficial to have locations in mind, before writing.
~ For efficiency in production route. Know your settings.
★ After reading, watch the video (header link)
~ See what had to be altered during production & cut in post.

Mare
| the allure of night |

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LXqdcSf4fh4

OPEN FIELD
1 FS - MAN lies on ground in a deep sleep.
~ MARE slowly crawl up him, IN-RIGHT.
~ MAN begins to awake.
~ MARE grins & crawls backwards OUT-RIGHT.
2 WS - MAN lies FAR-LEFT.
~ MARE is immobile FAR-RIGHT
~ MARE'S head slowly turns as MAN rises.
~ PAN LEFT - to cut off MARE as MAN walks toward her.

FREEMASON HOUSE
3 CU - ZOOM-OUT - from symbol as MARE & MAN walk toward/into the 4th WALL.

90˚ TRIANGLE BRIDGE
4 LS - LEFT BRIDGE - MARE is poised at the bridges' corner, looking UP.
5 WS - BOTH BRIDGES - MAN walks toward MARE.
6 LS - RIGHT BRIDGE - MAN approaches MARE.
7 MS - MAN reaches arm out toward MARE.
8 MCU - MAN touches her shoulder.
~ MARE'S neck jolts around & shrieks at the man, mouth agape & teeth brazen.

WHERE NATURE MEETS WASTELAND
9 RIGHT-THIRD - MARE, head turned rightward.
~ LEFT-THIRD - BEARDED MAN with eyes shut stands motionless, also right.
~ MIDDLE-THIRD - MAN stands entranced behind them, facing 4th WALL.
10 MIDDLE-THIRD - MAN holds his chest & breaths heavily.
~ RIGHT-THIRD - MARE walks IN-RIGHT with hand outstretched toward MAN.
~ LEFT-THIRD - BEARDED MAN slowly opens his eyes as MARE nears MAN.
11 CU - TORSO - MARE'S hand caresses MAN'S chest as his abdomen caves in.
~ MARE's hand pushes down on his abdomen, which balloons outward & deflates.

INDUSTRIAL WASTELAND
12 WS - MARE walks a high-rise along a row of several gigantic oil tankers.
~ MAN walks under high-rise, following behind her; he reaches a ladder & climbs it.

QUANTUM TREE BRIDGE
13 TS - MARE'S profile walks upright, up a tree;
~ halfway up her head slowly turns LEFT.
~ MAN begins crawling up the base of the tree, his nails ripping off bark.

WHERE NATURE MEETS WASTELAND
14 FS - MARE facing 4th WALL, head turned RIGHT, looking DOWN.
~ MAN crawls toward MARE, reaching for her ankle.
~ His eyes close as he looks up at her.
15 POV MAN LOOKING UP - MARE stares into 4th WALL
~ as her mouth opens, emitting thick plasma.

STONE PILLARS
16 FS - MARE & then MAN walk facing RIGHT
~ as they appear both infront of & behind the pillars.

FENCED CLYDESDALE PASTURE
17 FS - LEFT-THIRD - MARE stands at fence
~ facing the clydesdales before facing 4th WALL.
~ CU - RIGHT-THIRD - MAN'S shoulder enters
~ as MARE looks back at clydesdales.

BURNT SHED WASTELAND
18 CENTER-THIRD - MARE stands staring at shed;
~ her arm outstretched toward MAN.
~ LEFT-THIRD - MAN, on bended knee, kisses the back of her hand.
19 MCU - MAN releases his lips & smoke bellows out his mouth.

WHERE NATURE MEETS WASTELAND
20 FS - MARE lays nude, an arm covering her chest;
~ her back curved over a large object.
~ MAN approaches IN-RIGHT & lays his head on her stomach.
~ MARE begins to smile as his eyes close;
~ she silently shrieks, bearing her fangs.

Shooting Script 2
Efficient in Pre-Production

'the letter B'

http://youtube.com/watch?v=i6ESpjP-ya0

fade in

* a Guy & a Girl sits silently on the ground next to a lamp & a fan; they adjust lamp
* they slowly stretch & bend until they lay on the ground
* there is a knock at the door
* the Guy gets up as the girl continues stretching
* the Guy returns, holding a white ball
* he shows the Girl the white ball
* she becomes amazed by it as they pass it back & forth
* they begin to kiss passionately
* the white ball is dropped & begins to melt
* as it melts the Guy begins choking the Girl
* at first she smiles but soon she begins gasping as he kills her
* the Guy drags all but the Girl's hand out of frame
* he then begins to collect what has melted & is able to mold it back into a ball
* he sits, enamored by the ball as it melts in his hand
* there is another knock at the door

fade out

(EndNote 2: Films to be Viewed, Prerequisite & In-Class.

Prerequisites

2001: A Space Oddesey – Structure, Mood, Provocation & Patience.
Chinatown – Structure & Character Development.
La Jetée – Structure, Mood, Provocation & Patience.

In-Class

Tonal

Comparison:
Killing of Chinese Bookie (both versions)
– Structure, Mood & Character Development.

Comparison:
B and Mare – Mood, Provocation & Patience.

Beau Travail – Structure, Mood & Patience.
Anatomy of Hell – Mood, Provocation & Patience.
The Fall – Structure, Mood & Free Expression Narrative.

Transcendental

by Brakhage, (selections) – Free Expression.
Hukkle – Documentary & Free Expression.

Comparison:
Earth City, Antonio Gaudí and Phantom India
– Documentary, Patience & Free Expression.

Comparison:
Celine & Julie Go Boating and Daisies
– Structure, Mood, Patience & Free Expression.

Verité

Innocence – Documentary, Subtlety & Provocation.
God's Country – Documentary, Subtlety & Provocation.
Punishment Park – Documentary & Provocation.

Comparison:
Midnite Rainbow and Happy Justice
– Documentary, Subtlety, Provocation & Patience.

Structure

Scenes from a Marriage – Structure
& Documentary Character Development.
Hannah & Her Sisters – Structure
& Comedy Character Development.
Romeo + Juliet – Structure
& Tragedy Character Development.
L'intrus – Mood, Subtlety, Provocation,
& Experimental Character Development.

Transgressive

Persona – Structure, Provocation
& Deconstruction Character Development.
Dogville – Structure, Provocation
& Deconstruction Character Development.
Alphaville – Structure, Provocation & Deconstruction Narrative.
F for Fake – Structure, Provocation & Deconstruction Narrative.

(EndNote 3: Prerequisite Essay

http://neuroglyphix.blogspot.com/2008/10/cinema-is-essay.html

(Endnote 4: Glossary

~ enjoy yourself ~

NEH, 2009

|| The Great Recession!! ||

1987-09-29T23:44:00.000-07:00

| Mockery is the best policy |
| La moquerie est la meilleure politique |

|| La Grande Récession!! ||

neuroglyphix

1984-11-07T23:07:00.000-08:00

Enter Title Here.

The gradual visual writ large herein (which is assumed will be read only by moi) has been congenially created via daily fascinations, ennui & the pure, shameless desire to self-advertise.

Survival of the fittest.

Embrism.

End transmission.