This morning I started reading a book of biblical size titled Grammar of the Film Language by Daniel Arijon. It is his 640 page magnum opus. In his introduction I was struck by the concept that “we become the sumary of our experiments.”
I think this statement is powerful and true and that the art of becoming an artist is one of continuous experimentation born out of curiosity.
In this same morning I read a psychology study that talked about the causes of a lack of curiosity in people. It turns out that people who have suffered trauma can be suck in a survival mental loop where all they can perceive or pay attention to are any possible dangers or risks to their well being. It reminded me of how in Maslow’s hierarchy of human need creativity can’t happen until a person has had all their basic needs met first.
Anyway, I came to campus this morning and gave a demo of how to light the studio for a composite image. One of my students brought some wonderful hats she makes and another student happened to be wearing a perfect blue wardrobe that aligned with the hat.
I made a few shots and then brought the image into photoshop were I masked out the background and brought in an image I created through generative AI with the direction of “Create a background plate for a cinematic scene that is in 4:3 proportion. This background plate needs to have a night scene of a 17th century harbor That I can film an actor in front of that would allow the actor to appear like they are greeting someone who is about to board the ship“
When I was a child, my favorite ride at Disneyland was the Peter Pan ride. I think this image originates from this memory.
I harmonized the color grade between the studio shot and the background image and brought in some additional texture screens to blend the layers together artistically. This project took a total of only an hour to produce. I was simply experimenting!
