Eldon booth work and elephant

Tuesday was a very interesting day to attend too, because I actually got school on time, which was good for start to day. We had Eldon Booth an Ex-MSVA student to come /into our class to talk to us and show us two of his short-films that he made in his younger years as a student at MSVA. In lecture I found him very interesting and really fun to listen to, he laughs at his own jokes while talking about some of his works. He also talked to us about how he graduated from Manukau School of Visual Arts (MSVA) back in 1999 and he showed us a two of his short-films focusing mainly on documentary and drama techniques with the intention of blurring the line between illusion and reality for a viewer.

The first film he showed us was called ‘Extract from withdrawal’. He told us that it took him 2 years to make that short-film, where as when you watch the short-film you see time slowly past by and how the actor start to kind of age. I really liked how he used his family members as actors instead of hired actors because it's pretty smart in terms of how he used his brother for example you don't have to like pay him because your like family. Another thing that I thought was pretty interesting about that short film was that, he used a handheld camera that followed his actors (brother and grandfather), he takes us as a viewer in their normal day lives which gets it a reality look inside there. Split screens also played a big part on it, it made a huge different to the film in terms of how it show in their timelines of the day; both characters were in two different places such as the grandfather lying in hospital and the grandson smoking weed with friends and catching trains. I liked how he went for that amature style, quality to his project because it got us as a viewer to get to know the both characters though there actions.

For the second short-film he made I think he went for a drama/ documantary style of filming because I remembered in class he mentioned that he was really inspired by a 20/20 program interview that came once, he said that he really amazed and inspired in how real that interview on 20/20 was because of the camera angles, sound and lighting that was used really contributed to that interview. When Eldon makes works he said that he trys to challenge himself by editing all his short-films etc, less than 5days. To personally I don't like his style of film but I really respect his work and I think think it's cool, just not what I'm into.

Elephant was a true story film directed by Gus Van Sant. To me personally I thought it was just really to see all those innocent students die, sample just a cruel way to die for me really. I like how the director used P.O.V shots on the mass killers and how the camera follow them around, as if you just right their with them at that very movement.