Pure-Perspective

A Cappella Jam Fall '08

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 13:11:00 +0000

Gentlemen Caller's Fall '08 Jam Video from David Jaffe on Vimeo.

Synedoche, New York

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 06:45:00 +0000

Synecdoche, New York

Why is it that tomorrow is the first time I have been excited about a movie in a while? It's because Charlie Kaufman is back. Thank God. I want to see someone trying to push the medium in a way beyond the work that anybody else has produced this year, I want to see something that doesn't entirely make sense when I first see it, and I want to be thinking when I come out of the theatre.

I haven't been this excited since Batman.

You'll be having my comments.

Experiencing the Election

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:03:00 +0000

So, I've been doing some thinking, and I guess since you could call this my quote on quote, "Blog", and seeing how my parents are still paying for this server space (I love you Dad) I might as well write a little "post".

Actual film (not video) is fascinating. I am currently coming to the end of my Film Production I class, and besides my eternal frustration with the fact that I had to learn what an F-Stop is for the fifth time in my life, the class has been quite educational. Being someone who has grown up entirely with the medium of video, my approach to film production is entirely different. Not since abandoning my interest in still photography three years ago have I touched film. The process is slower and requires a lot more planning; if you screw up, you screw up permanently. And most importantly what you see is not what you get. There's no LCD screen on film cameras.

My future is in video. My art, I have come to realize, is not that of the motion picture film, but of picture in motion. Right now I'm counting down the hours until the election, fearing for the next four years. The entire college campus is nervous as hell (perhaps that explains all the drinking...), all five of the McCain supporters are being hassled daily, and I guarantee come Tuesday/Wednesday being a student at Wheaton won't be the same. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people don't come back to school because of this election. Of course with all this political stress the only thing I can really think of is my future as an artist; this might be one of the last times I work with film.

[Wheaton] Film Project II

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 23:14:00 +0000

I want to talk a bit about Jake Mahaffy's film class at Wheaton College. While I can't really directly quote on the concepts of the class I can talk about what the class means to me.

Above is a picture from Sunday's five hour production of a film that I have come to call Everyday Practice. This is the second of three film projects that I will be making for the class. What I have come to both love and loath of Jake's class is the simplicity in which we are encouraged to approach our films. Film Production I is about the moving image, and while I haven't done in camera editing since I was ten, the first project reminded me how hard that was. Today shooting the second film project was a bit more familiar. Each image we carefully crafted and rehearsed, we could shoot out of order, and we had more than an hour to shoot the entire thing.

What I am truly excited about is being able to edit the film by hand, for the first time I am taking my hand off the keyboard and onto the image itself. I will be splicing and taping; watching and rewatching. The true beauty of Film Production I is the reminder of the basics, of what the moving image is. The Treatment for Everyday Practice follows:

A house; long grass, trash everywhere, it’s a dump. A MAN runs out of the house, his hat flies off his head, it takes a couple of seconds to realize that he loses it. Then he turns around, runs back to get it when – his WIFE exits the house. Fur coat, lots of cleavage, and a frying pan. They exchange a look before she hurls the frying pan at him. She misses and he runs.

She picks up the frying pan and runs after him chasing him to a shack. He runs around the shack, she has disappeared. Confused, he slowly moves the other end of the shack. She hits him on the head and he goes down.
Furious, she hits him a few more times until she tires. She slumps to the ground.

She breathes exhausted.

The man, stands up, takes a breath and takes the pan from her. He helps her up and they both walk off frame.

FADE OUT

A Dreamscape

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 05:11:00 +0000

Stair Sculpture

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 02:21:00 +0000

Some Info on Shrimp

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:46:00 +0000

Summer always has a funny was of ending too early, but here I am stuck in the middle of August getting ready for my sophomore year at Wheaton College. This summer turned out to be a bit of a surprise. After being invited to be the Director of Photography on a production by Broken Row entitled Shrimp. Little did I know that this would be one of the most professionally run (completely by college students) productions that I would ever work on. Shrimp tells the story of Evan, who, after being warning by his brother not to do so, eats a Shrimp dinner and begins to suffer from a form of food poisoning, testing his life values and relationship with his fiance. Shrimp is currently in post-production, and some screenshots should be up soon.

The End of the School Year and the Future

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:18:00 +0000

It's the end of the day, I'm sitting in the airport and freshmen year is coming to a close. It's that time of day where everything is perfect, the light shooting across the floor, clouds scattering the sky, and-- wow is that guy actually walking like that? The airport is never short of unstable 40-year-old drug addicted men. This is what happens when you leave the bubble that is a college campus. At this point, one might be tempted to make a joke stating how the only difference between being on campus and off campus is the age of the drug addicted individual, but I would rather focus on what is to come.

Right now, my only solid plan for the summer is to return to TIC summer camp for the fourth time to teach video production. Much of the summer will be spent doing research for the production company that I am trying to start. This means more trips to New York, film festival research, and production house research! Expect the next post to be the video of the concert that I shot.

Something of Interest

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sat, 03 May 2008 21:49:00 +0000

I recently found out that the video for Austin Simko that I made is being featured on the Wheaton College Admissions Website.

Concert.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 02:24:00 +0000

Last week I got to do something that I've always wanted to do: shoot a concert. It was really spur of the moment, I came up with the whole camera setup the night before and then ran in with a Sony GL2 (a.k.a. a nice camera), my little camcorder, and two more camcorders that my friends brought. A four camera set up isn't bad, especially when I get to run around in front of the stage just shooting whomever I like. The concert itself was my friend Tonga's senior thesis for his major in music at Wheaton College. I hope the actual video was as good as the concert. As soon as this is edited I will post it. But for now, I'm sick!

I Sold Out.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 05:49:00 +0000

The official intermission video for the Wheaton College Gentlemen Callers for their spring 2008 jam, brought to you by yours truely:

Politics.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:28:00 +0000

Here's a video I created for a candidate running for SGA President at Wheaton College (enjoy!):

Excitement for the Future

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 02:16:00 +0000

Now that Home is Nowhere is finished there is a lot of projects that I am quite excited about that I am going to be turning out. Before I talk about the future, I quickly want to talk about the feedback regarding Home is Nowhere.

Overall the response to the film has been quite positive and I just wanted to take some time to post some of my favorite comments:

"Well done, I rather enjoyed it. For some reason, I really liked the suitcase full of water bottles. Also, abandoned/rotting locations are beautiful. And I'm now tempted to try my hand at a car chase."

"The driver is the best actor of the lot, methinks; he's like a cross between Lukas Haas and Eric Balfour. Was the guy who ran wearing a wig, or does he just have weird-ass hair?"

"And yes, cool short... I like the scene on the sidewalk. It reminded me of Midnight Cowboy, complete with Ratso Rizzo cough."

"The stories good, it's straightforward, but it also makes me think. You know what I'm talking about?"

Now, I've never seen Midnight Cowboy, but it seems like I should go and pick it up. I think that Home is Nowhere will be the first film that I try to get in some major festivals. But that's enough of that, I want to address the future.

I feel like it's time I graduated to buying myself a new camera, and the approach will be that this will be an investment into Lonely Tree Films. A production company that Timothy Adams and I have started. So far our only two films are The Gym and Home is Nowhere. But this summer we are changing that. We are turning out three different films, two shorts, and one experimental short. Personally I am very excited for the experimental shorts, I recently aquired Adobe After Effects and I am dying to play with this. So, I am thinking that we will set up a green-screen stage in my basement and see how it goes.

Speaking of my basement. A while ago I posted a photo from a film called That Color Red. It was probably one of the biggest productions I ever attempted; we built a soundstage in my basement, we rented equipment, etc. Unfortunately the size of the production was the issue, it was too much for me to take on at the time and the entire thing fell through. We only shot 4 scenes. My next plan is to edit together those 4 scenes and present them on a page dedicated to That Color Red. So look for that in the next month. Until then, I bid you all ado.

Home is Nowhere

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 02:18:00 +0000

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, I present:

Home is Nowhere

Edit: Link fixed. Sorry about that.

How is this Going to Work? [Rough Cut Finished]

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 04:31:00 +0000

There comes a moment in the making of every film, when you are sitting down in front of your computer, final cut pro open, and you insert the final shot of the film. You sit back, pull your eyes away from the screen, take a deep breath, and whisper to yourself: "How the hell is this going to work?"

For those not in the know, after shooting a film, you take a look at the footage and then cut the shots together to make a "rough cut". The rough cut is exactly like it sounds, it is rough. There are sounds that feel awkward, cuts that don't match, and lighting differences that could make you scream. And don't get me wrong, I do scream. Editing a movie is like a collage, it looks terrible until you find the perfect pattern and then everything begins to make sense. I'm trying not to complain however, because I kind of screw myself by shooting on this:

As you might have guessed, this camera does not produce the creme de la creme of sound and image quality, but I seem to have managed so far.

So, now that I have finished the rough cut, successfully panicked, where do I go from here? Well, first I need to correct the color on all the shots, and then edit all the sound so that what you listen to when watching the film sounds somewhat natural (or unnatural...). Thirdly, two students have volunteered to write a score for the film, and finally I need to make sure that everything is polished and up to par with my standards...

All this for a 7 minute movie. Dear Lord.

Editing Away

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 04:40:00 +0000

Make Movies?

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:21:00 +0000

Upcoming Film Screencap.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:44:00 +0000

Over my first break at Wheaton I decided to do two things, start a small web design company called Hagia Design and make a new film. Here is a little taste of a film I am calling "Home is Nowhere", starring Frank Neuman and Matthew Jaffe:

More to Come.

Red Revisits the Grass

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 05:43:00 +0000

The Red Bush of New York

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 22:07:00 +0000

In a Field of Ice

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 04:51:00 +0000

That's One Giant Pile of A Capella

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 02:51:00 +0000

So, I had the honor of working with the all male a Capella group at Wheaton College, The Gentlemen Callers, to make their intermission video. The theme of their 'Jam' was Jurassic Park, meaning that they all dressed up as dinosaurs, decorated the entire chapel where they perform, and of course had an intermission video with the theme of Jurassic Park. So, without further ado, the video:

Grasping the Cup in the Dark

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 04:35:00 +0000

City Life

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:52:00 +0000

Man With Bike

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 04:34:00 +0000

This, just, well it came out of nowhere. The only real inspiration for this had to have been the face. Which looks like Kyle MacLachlan a bit, because I was watching Blue Velvet (in preparation for meeting Hopper) when I was drawing this.