DMA Final Project - Restless Farewell

So.. The day has come..

My experience with DMA class was great. I learned a lot and improved my reading skills by reading mass of material every week.

I think that the way this course is built was very helpful for me, because I could make my composition every week, whenever I was able to, without having an impossible deadline.

As I noted in my final assignment below, DMA class helped me with other classes as well, mostly with thinking of stories to tell, and the way of expressing them, since we discussed many different subjects along the term.

I decided to write about the two film classes I'm aiming for as my first and second choices. I  think that both of the academic classes I took this term had a direct influence on these classes. For me, all of the classes were also a great challenge, since it was the first time I had to use the English language so often and in the highest level I could (As a gesture, I wrote the Hebrew initials and full name of this class on the right top of the page.)

Thank you all for this term, professors and colleagues, for the support and help, and for the ideas and opinions you were all sharing.

See you around,

N.S

ART/Islam - Final Project

For this assignment I decided to continue exploring the subject I chose for the ART/Islam project, and that is Successful female Muslim Artists.

I tried to find some based and specific information on the net, about the approach of the radical Muslim society towards female artists, but I could not find it.

So I decided to find a piece by Saira Wasim, the artist I wrote about in my last post, and maybe find some clues about how she feels with her profession as a Muslim artist.

So I found a painting called “Round Table,” uploaded on her website. A beautiful and unique one.

Looking at the painting for the first moment, I thought it is calm and soothing. After a few moments, the whole painting suddenly becomes very disturbing, when I realized that the men sleeping around the “Round Table” are some of the world’s most extreme Muslim dictators.

The painting fascinated me, and made me think about what the artist tried to convey. One thing I had in mind, based on what I know about the life of women in an radical Muslim world, is that her work and profession might be like my reaction when I saw the painting for the first time – You might think that everything is calm and relaxed, and that Wasim can paint and create art for other people to consume without a problem, but only when you ask question and explore, you can see that it is not so simple. Maybe, she can only make her voice heard, when these extreme dictators are “asleep.”

Another disturbing part of the paining is the 4 “Ronald McDonalds” watching over the dictators. I wasn’t sure what it means. As I see it, “McDonald’s” represent the west, the USA, more specifically. So you can say that the USA oversees the dictators, yet the USA still portrayed as a very disturbing existence.

Maybe someone else could offer his/her interpretation.

Anyway…

For my composition, I decided to record my own version of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” A version that will emphasize the meaning of this painting, as I see it.

P.S – I know that the term “Tsar,” that I used for the name of the piece, is directed to Russian dictators, but I believe you could understand why it fitted so well here.

Have a great Thanksgiving all,

N.S

DMA Four: Service

Review - Part I

I think the most distinguishable change we had in this unit of the DMA course, was moving to a large group on Facebook that included all of the DMA students in this term.
This change led to an almost never-ending amount of possible conversations. People had the opportunity of hearing opinions they've never heard, coming from people they might have never met. It was refreshing and inspiring. I was very inspired by this fact. people were much more enthusiastic, and it felt as if people wrote and commented much more than usual, thus whatever they had to say reached and moved much more people than usual (and maybe that's the reason people wanted to write more.)

Anyway I think it was a win-win situation for all of us :)

About the subject we're dealing with - I can definitely say I learned and earned a lot from this unit, starting by exploring the uses of the new-media we all have for our personal future, and then by talking about the different uses of new-media that can help us all, as one unit, in our common future.
I think that although the "ART / Islam" project didn't directly donate to my profession or art, it was a great example of how we can all use new media to explore and learn new information about subjects and cultures we're not familiar with.
Again, people had many interesting things to say, and some of the links posted really opened my mind and helped me understand more about the subject.

Addressing real-world problems in an academic class is not only important in my opinion, but also essential. We study today, in order to change the world tomorrow. And as I said in one of my posts last week- We need to know what's wrong with the world, before we try to fix it.
We have to explore everything we can non-stop, and understand that we're just really small and insignificant creatures in this world, especially if we don't see ourselves as a part of this huge world. We need to think how we can exploit our abilities in order to help others in the world, who need our help.

So I think arranging academic classes around real-world problems will only help and enrich both students and professors.

N.S

The Project

So...

After quite a long research, I managed to find a decent website in which I could open an account and create my own website- my own modern and digital business card.

Since I have no experience with websites building, it took me some time to understand how to change and adjust certain things.

I still don't feel complete with the fact that my name and art are open to all. On the other hand, it was already open to all on YouTube...

The only thing still missing is a logo. I will try to take care of that asap.

Hope you like my website. I would love to hear your opinions.

http://nsfilmprod.wix.com/nsproductions#!home/mainPage


Have a great week

N.S.

New Media - Self - Project Plan

As I wrote on FB, out of the many significant and important uses new media has for aspiring filmmakers, I decided to focus on the use of internet as a modern business card.
Sooner or later we will all need to find a suitable platform for our creations and art, and since we live in a modern world, it will positively be on the internet.

For my project, I decided to find a website that offers what I'm looking for - a place where I can make myself a website of my own, where my details and projects will be posted in an organized way, and that I could show other people that are interested.

I really hope I'll manage to find and do something like that. I need a website that will let me do that for free, and that I will be satisfied with. It might be a website that I will build for myself(a thing I will have to study from square one during the week), or it might be a profile I will edit on a website that was made just for these intentions.

Since my week is full with works, studies and crewing(including preparations), I cannot make a timed plan, but I can write what I'm planning to achieve.

First - I will do a web research, try to find free websites that suite my intentions.
Second - I will explore the links I got and see which options are the best for me.
Third - I will pick one of the options.
And last - I will edit it - my information and works - and publish it on the groups' website.

I hope everything will go according to plan.

Good luck to all

N.S

New Traditional Media - The Project

Making the project was a very interesting experience for me- Trying to think of an interesting idea, understanding how many frames I need to take, and later deciding how long every frame will be on the video. It was my first experience with stop-motion, and I wanted to create something I would be satisfied with.

This experience helped me understanding how the first films were made, and of course, made me confront a "fear" I had regarding stop-motion making, since I had never tried it before.

In my video I used a traditional shooting method (the first method, actually), and new and modern technic method (a DSLR camera, and Premier for editing.)

Except for the low quality that I didn't manage to fix for today, I'm quite satisfied with the project. I hope you will like it too.

N.S

New and Traditional Media

This week feels like a summarization of the last few weeks we had in DMA class.
Talking about new media, we almost forgot what was the chicken that has blessed us with this unique and modern egg- The traditional media. The reason we all attended this school.

I think that having us creating a piece of art that combines new and traditional media is very interesting and challenging. It lets us explore the essence of our field of art, through the knowledge we have gained of new media.

For my project I decided to explore the first steps of Filmmaking, through the tools I have today as a filmmaker- I'm going to create a short stop-motion film, basically how films were made to begin with, using a DSLR camera, and a modern editing software.
It might sound obvious for a filmmaker to make a stop-motion film, but I have always tried to avoid this type of filmmaking, since I've never tried it. I was always afraid that it wouldn't work, since I don't know how to do it.

In our assignment we were asked to create something that will challenge us and teach us something about our artistic field, so I feel my choice is the best I could have made for this specific goal.

I will shoot a series of pictures this week, hoping to get the most decent product.
I'm excited to say that I will probably upload it when I will already be in Israel. I'm flying home for a really quick visit during Fall break, so I will have time during the flight to work and edit my project, after this week of mid-terms.

Have a great weekend you all,
See you in another week

N.S