Joseph Cornell and Lloyd Michael Williams

Artist:Joseph Cornell
Title: Rose Hobart
http://ubu.com/film/cornell.html

Joseph Cornell made this video from using pre-existing video's and splicing them together to make one video, just as we have been doing for some of our projects in class. Most of the clips are different sections of one film, but others are incorporated as well. In this video Cornell tried to focus mainly on gestures and expressions.

This video fascinates me because I feel like it has a lot of what we have been learning in class. Some of the scenes are really random, but fit together. Going from watching a candle to seeing a woman laying down doesn't exactly match up, but when put in this video with the music it all makes sense. I like how he films very mundane events and objects, like the candle that is burning, but not burning enough to be exciting, and the woman laying down for an extended period of time. The music does not match what is going on in the film, but makes me wonder what is going to happen next because of its upbeat tone, especially compared to what is being seen on the video. This video also does NOT seem like a music video, despite the ongoing soundtrack. It feels more like a silent film or movie. I also enjoy how the mundane scenes go on for many seconds, of watching the same thing happen. I feel like that helps me digest the information I am watching and hearing and thus infer what will happen next or help me figure out the storyline.

Artist: lloyd michael williams
Title:Ursula
http://ubu.com/film/williams.html

Lloyd Michael Williams went to NYU majoring in Film, Television and Radio Production. He soon after won a grant to go to Paris, France to study Cinematography. When he came back to America he moved to Chicago, where he got his first real film production job at Fred Niles Film Company. There he worked on many television commercials, Betty Crocker being one of the majors. Soon after, he returned to New York City where he worked on many major television commercials like Maxwell House Coffee, Tetley Tea, Dove Soap, and more.

I enjoy how this artist isolates each scene. There is one or two people max in all of the scenes in Ursula. The camera lighting makes the background very dark and basically black. This makes the characters pop out more. I like how this video is still very interesting to watch even though there is barely anything going on. All we see are closeups of the characters and hear their conversation with each other. This really makes me think about how much closeups can achieve in a video, and how they can make or break a video at times. Ursula demonstrates and exaggerates horror and emotion with its camera angles on the two main characters against the black background.