The Oscars

I think this is the first Academy Awards where I have not seen any film nominated for a major award. My daughter has not even seen Brave. After looking through all the categories I realized that the only film I had seen was Mirror Mirror. It was an okay film, but I didn't want to put the trailer up on the blog for some reason. I feel somewhat pathetic that is the only film I have seen. Interestingly, a song from the film Chasing Ice is nominated and my professor from undergrad is one of the producers of the film! So let's all cheer for it.

In all honesty, I am not really that interested in seeing the majority of the films nominated. Nothing really screamed out to me that I should go see it. So that is my excuse. Of course I will watch all of the award show and if we weren't in the middle of the move I might even have had some people over. Oh well. Hopefully next year.

Colorizing Films

Sometime in the past three years I obtained a collection of Shirley Temple Films. I have watched some of the shorter ones with my daughter, but yesterday was so blisteringly cold that we decided not to brave the outdoors after a trip to Target. We came home and decided to watch The Little Princess and drink Silk Nog.  

Imagine my horror when I turned on the film to find it was colorized. The shorter films we had watched previously were not colorized. I know that it is not always clear why colorization is so bad, so let me explain. To me films are works of art and not simply works of entertainment. When the films were made colors were chosen for the shade of grey that they would become when shot with black and white film. If you were to visit a set while they were shooting the colors would seem very odd. For instance to give the impression that women had deep red lipstick on the actresses actually wore a garish brown color that translated to what appeared to be a rich velvety red color on film. Directors of photography (DPs) trained their eyes to see in shadows and shades of gray as opposed to seeing in, so to speak, technicolor. It is an amazing skill that has for the most part been lost.

If you compare a black and white film shot in the last twenty years to one shot in the 1940s the difference is very apparent. Black and White Films nowadays tend to have a washed out look with many of the grays being similar shades. Contemporary DPs can see light and shadows, but are not as good at looking at colors and seeing gray. You can even see this in photography if you compare older photographs with newer ones. This also has something to do with film vs digital. Film can get a really wonderful, rich black color that digital just can't reproduce. Digital doesn't have the range of color that film has and it becomes very obvious when you are dealing with a gray scale because the grays start to match and you lose contrast. When you colorize a film some random colorist, completely disconnected from the film, is sitting at a machine deciding what color a dress the actress should wear, what color their hair should be, how green a tree is, etc. All of these choices were made previously by people collaborating on the actual film and are now being changed.

Not only is random color being applied to the film, but the choices that were originally made are being obscured. Sixty and seventy years ago film was not as sensitive as it is now and lights were huge and powerful. Painting with light (as cinematography can be referred to) was so much more difficult then and to see what DPs were able to do can be awe inspiring. They had to control the light in ways that we no longer have to; technology has made it very easy to shoot with available light and small lights. They had to think about every ray of light shining on to the set and they had no way of previewing what they were doing the way we do now with video assist or playback. You could walk onto a set and it would seem glaringly bright, but then when you watched the film the light would seem low and nearly dark. Past DPs really were true visionaries, even just the ones working on small B films or Shirley Temple films. When you colorize a film you lose all those details that they worked so hard to obtain.

Lastly, I believe it is beneficial to be appreciative of the past and those that came before us. There is a tendency to think that if something is new then it is better, if something is more expensive it is better, and so on. So often you get eye rolls about watching something in black and white, which makes no sense to me. I understand not being in the mood for subtitles (I've felt that way before particularly with a toddler running around), but black and white? I think a well executed black and white film is often significantly more beautiful than a run of the mill color film and is on par (and can even exceed) any of the great color films. I thought this argument had been made and colorizing films had been admonished (I can be so naive sometimes). In just the last two weeks I have run across two colorized films (when I bought Miracle on 34th Street the colorized version is publicized and the original B & W version is simply an "extra") and people are so nonchalant about it. I wonder if everyone would feel the same way if I suggested sprucing up some of Picasso's paintings from his blue period. They are kind of drab don't you think? Shades of blue? Wouldn't it be nice to add a little red? Some nice bubblegum pink would surely make them more appealing.

My daughter was so excited to watch Shirley Temple (she drinks that drink, as she repeatedly told me) that I continued watching and will no doubt watch it again. Our collection includes three discs so I am hoping that some of the other films are in glorious black and white.

(Picture Sources:  Photo 1, Photo 2)

Warmer Days Are Here Again, For Now

I know that there will be another cold snap, it's inevitable. I think of March as the coldest month, though it seems in recent years that has not always been the case. We have been having beautiful weather here. On Monday my daughter and I went on two hour-long walks. Tomorrow I have plans to finish off that 36 roll of slide film so I can stop posting these slacker digital pictures. I had a particularly stressful time with these pictures since I was unable to control focus, but I love these ribbons on this tree. I'm assuming they are left over from a wedding, but not positive. The gardeners have left them up for awhile and they were still there on Monday, faded. Perhaps they will still be there tomorrow.

Tonight, my husband is at a UNCG basketball game and my daughter fell asleep early, so unexpectedly I have the house to myself. I'm not sure what to do, I have not been alone at night in a very long time. I feel as though I should be doing something very monumental to maximize this time, but I can't think of anything. So, instead I am watching the Carolina basketball and perusing the internet. Not to bad.

A Trip to the Beach

This past weekend my family and I took a quick trip to the beach. Normally, when we go we stay with friends and it is as much about catching up with friends as anything else. This time we stayed in a hotel at the end of Wrightsville Beach. We just wanted to get away and not talk about anything going on in our lives. My daughter loved the hotel room, she loved the sand, and the restaurants. It's funny how we lived there and got tired of the restaurants and now we miss some of them like crazy! All and all the trip was a huge success and was relaxing. Of course, as the week goes on the stress of waiting increases. I guess we will just have to go back again this weekend! I wish.

I also took pictures of the sunrise with the 35 mm camera, but these are the digital pictures. I know I have been so slack about developing film. My current role has 36 frames and for some reason it seems to take a lot longer to finish 36 over 24. Hmmmmm...

Christmas Passes So Quickly

It seems as though I have been from the computer for a long time. I have spent the last few weeks everywhere but at my own house. We have an iPad that we bring with us when we travel, but I don't like to type on it. Thus, it has been quiet on the blog for awhile. I don't have any interesting photos of my vacations because I forgot my camera! I always forget something and this time it was the camera.

Before I left I received a roll of black and white prints back from the lab because I have to send B & W away and can't use the local lab it usually takes me a long time to send it out. Case in point these photos are from the summer. Of course, this is the perfect time to reflect on the year that has passed and so they seem apropos.

Black Swan

I thought I would share some experiments I took with toy cameras of a ballerina. I am excited to see how the pictures turn out in a studio or similar.

I posted these photos because I saw Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan today. It seems as though I have been waiting awhile for this film to come to theaters and often when that happens the film is somewhat disappointing. Fortunately, this wasn't the case with this film. The opening shot was a sparse, yet, beautiful dance amid blackness. And very quickly the beautiful grain of the film was eloquently apparent. I love when filmmakers eschew that perfect, crisp look for grain with movement and imperfections. The film was shot on super16, which makes perfect sense as to the larger grain (smaller frame size will be blown up more). Anyway, enough about film grain, as beautiful as it may be.

Some criticism of the film has been the use of cliched story lines, yet I felt that the acting was so good that the ballet cliches did not bother me.  There could have been more dancing, but it may also be in that perfect middle ground of just enough. I'll have to watch it again. Many of the shots were subjective medium shots either in front of or behind Natalie Portman, thus, most leg work was not visible and there were rarely long shots showing the entire stage. When the stage was shown it felt too small to be either of the stages at Lincoln Center.

I know that I will have much more to say about this film as it is still fairly fresh on my mind. It was also exciting to see so many filmgoers out on a Sunday to see a ballet film.

A Day of Infamy and Cold

It snowed this weekend! 2.5 inches. Of course, it was as beautiful as can be and I didn't get any pictures. I really need a small camera that I can keep in my purse to use as needed. I have a digital one that I recently found in an old purse, but I don't want to mix digital/film too much. It snowed on Saturday and on Sunday most of the picturesque sights melted quickly. You wouldn't know it though from the weather today since we have not gotten above freezing. My daughter has a slight cold and I don't want to take her out in the freezing weather. We've spent all day inside and looks as though tomorrow is more of the same. I need to think of cold weather activities for us. I got out crayons today and some things were unnecessarily "decorated," such as an upholstered chair and the floor.

I was also taken aback by the passing of Elizabeth Edwards. Since it was only yesterday that it was announced that her cancer was no longer treatable. It is amazing to consider all of the heartache she had gone through in her life and, yet, she always seemed to be upbeat and grateful. A couple years ago I worked with a cancer survivor and John and Elizabeth Edwards came to our campus. My colleague was able to share a small moment with her when they shook hands and it was impressive how through the few words that they shared Elizabeth Edwards inspired such hope in and created a personal connection with my colleague. It is rare that a person can do that and we are lucky to have had her be a part of our country and our great state. May she rest in peace.

Holga/Diana Experiments

I have this really grand idea to do the publicity for my ballerina documentary using my Holga and Diana Cameras (and possibly my grandmother's Duaflex). The idea being that if I am trying to humanize an icon, the ballerina, using these un-perfect cameras to showcase women who have spent their lives trying to achieve perfection would visualize the concept. Sound good? Though, all that matters is that they look good.

The above pictures were taken with the Diana. They are so dark. Ahhhhhh. The Holga pictures look significantly better at least when looking at the negatives, but my scanner won't recognize the negative. Ugh! It's driving me completely crazy. I think it is because all the pictures are jammed together and the scanner wants to see singular frames and not one long frame. I wish I could throw the scanner through the window. Perhaps, it would work then?

This weekend I received test prints, no negative scanning required. Yay! Though I still have to scan the prints, but that is a piece of cake. Some of them are so beautiful with lovely flare and out of focus edges. The exposure is much better, but I really want them to be almost over exposed. I think I just need to not be picky and go with the flow of whatever develops.

I have already taken two rolls of one of the ballerinas. They are still waiting to be developed. Cross your fingers!

Visiting Asheville

For the Fourth of July holiday we visited my husband's family in Asheville, NC. It is a very fun, hip, city. It's funny to me that both of our sets of parents live in much hipper cities than we do (my parents are in Boulder, CO). Ironically, we live in the same city where three out of our four parents grew up, hmmmm. Most of these pictures are from downtown because on July 5th we realized that we hadn't visited that area, so we went for a walk.

When I got home I accidentally opened the camera before it was rewound. For some reason I was getting 26 pictures on a roll of 24 and I flashed the end of the roll. I really love flares and light leaks so I thought the end result as a very happy accident.

Super 8 on the Eighth: Test

Super8 Test from Chelsea Wayant on Vimeo.

This is the first time that I have used my Super 8 video transfer system. Knowing this first project would be more of a test I shot old barns and fields in and around Guilford County, NC. There is no story, but instead images that I felt would benefit the Super 8 format. The reel is presented as shot with no editing. I also included the projector sound and some leader and tail to give the feeling of watching footage projected on the wall.

The main issue with the transfer system is that it is overexposing the footage. As is always the case the reel looks better projected than digitized, but I'm hoping to get more detail in the bright areas in my next attempt.  Even with the less than ideal transfer I believe this test still captures some the warmth and inviting nature of Super 8 film.

Polaroids and Super 8 Transfers

I have really grand plans of posting Super 8 footage on the eighth of every month. Today is supposed to be the first day, but I am having a little transferring problem. I shot some footage almost three weeks ago and it looks really good when projected on the living room wall. Of course now I just need to work on getting the footage digitized, which inevitably loses some of the wonderful quality of a projected image.

Awhile back I was able to find a fairly new (considering it is from the 1980s) Super 8 transfer system at the Goodwill for five dollars. When I first opened it I found the above cat Polaroid (isn't it sweet?). Thought I would share that with you now and hopefully will have some Super 8 footage for you shortly. It may be a little overexposed, but maybe that will only add to its charm?

One Long Post

Recently, I have been taking many pictures of flowers. The Greensboro Arboretum is near our house and we like to take walks there. They have an amazing variety of flowers that constantly draw me to them. Though, my husband did take the first photo with the bee. I had two frames left and he saw the bee circling the flower. I told him he could have one frame and he was able to get the shot without using my last frame!

On another note, I was very excited Sunday night when I was up late working on this blog I discovered Lost repeats are on the CW at midnight. Many would roll their eyes at me and say, "Oh, Chelsea just get the DVDs!" I would like to argue for watching television as broadcast and not DVD or DVR or Hulu. Not because I am a luddite, though I am often accused of that because I don't have a cell phone.  I don't have expanded cable so if a show is on a cable station like Party Down (which we have been watching this week) or Mad Men then I have no choice to get the DVD. I'm not going to get cable for a couple of television shows. Plus, a good friend of mine gave me a DVD collection of Law and Order (another fave), but I rarely watch it. While it was a wonderful gift I miss the thrill of discovering that Law and Order is on and trying to remember if I've see the episode or not as I watch.

Here is my argument for broadcast shows; to begin with if a show starts at 8:00 pm then I need to be there at 8:00 to watch it. If I miss it, oh well, my life is not over. Maybe, I'll catch it in repeats over the summer. Commercials give me a chance to get a drink, use the bathroom, check my email and actually having commercials makes the commercial break cliffhangers that much more exciting. This is extremely pertinent when watching Lost. Again, if I miss the first minute or so because I stepped away for too long, it's ok, it's television, I'll still understand what's going on. Or, in the case of Lost, maybe not understand what is going on, but enjoying that which I don't understand and languishing that which I believe I do understand. People argue that broadcast television rules your life because you have to be there at 8:00, while I think that DVDs, DVR, and Hulu control you in a more meaningful manner. With these outlets you have to watch the show in its entirety, if someone calls you pause it, and you have to watch every show that even remotely interests you. If at 8:00 ABC, NBC, and CBS have good shows on, I have to pick one to watch, but others will record all three shows and watch them all! That's crazy to me.

So here is the end of my late night rant. I know that television is changing, but I think it is unfortunate. It makes me think of the changes that happened in the movie theater after television established itself in the 1950s. Before television movie theaters played short films, news reels, and b-films along with the featured film. People could pay their nickel and walk into the theater as they pleased. There wasn't really a starting time. Films had to make sense even if a customer walked into it in the middle. Alfred Hitchcock worked hard to change people's mindset with Psycho in 1960. If viewers missed the beginning they would miss the star, Janet Leigh, so there was an advertising campaign telling the public that they had to, "see it from the beginning."  Theatre workers were told not to let anyone into the movie late. It was an entirely new way of thinking about going to the movies. While I think it is important to watch a film in its entirety I also think it would be nice to just sit in a theatre as long as I want watching shorts, newsreels, and all that jazz. Sort of like when you sit down to veg in front of the television in the middle of the night and realize there is a repeat on of a show you really like.

The Holga

I have thinking about my next film order and realized that we haven't used our Holga recently. This is partly due to the fact that I dropped it the last time I had it out and now there is a loose piece rattling around inside. Hopefully, it is an easy fix because it would be fun to have some bright summer-y Holga pics.