maya DErEn

Jacob Wetzel

Maya Deren’s “Meshes of the Afternoon”

When boiled down to its simplest form, Maya Deren’s “Meshes of the Afternoon” is an interpretation on dream structure.  Seeing as all dreams are very specific to the dreamer, the concept of turning a dream into a film that viewers can interpret and enjoy is not easy to pull off.  In “Meshes,” Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid achieve the effect of dream through utilizing experimental techniques in framing, sound, composition, and movement.

At the beginning of the film, we are not yet in the “dream world.”  We know this because all of the shots are taken from a point of view similar to Deren’s, and we do not see her face in any shots.  Maya Deren finds a flower in the road, and picks it up.  She then walks to the front door, drops her key, picks it up, enters the house, observes odd placement of the bread knife, the phone, and the record player, and falls asleep in a chair.  It is important to note the objects that the camera focuses on in the “real world” sequences, as they all play significant roles throughout the film.  The flower, key, knife, phone, and record player are all recurring symbols throughout the “dream world.”  Much like how in a dream, the mind pulls together random images from the day before and relates them to eachother.  As Maya falls asleep, we enter her “dream world” with her. 

BRIGHT IDEAS for the light project

These stick people costumes were made with el wire, which is basically a light in wire form.  it is pretty bright in the dark, and it can be bent into shapes like these stick people.  It is pretty popular as costume lighting, since it is cheap (about $1.00 per foot), effective, battery powered, and easily manipulated.  To shorten el wire, you just cut it like a thread.  It would be pretty easy to make a complete scene with el wire in a dark environment.  A similar effect could be achieved with glow in the dark elements or blacklights, but el wire is much brighter.  People do amazing things with el wire, like this guy, who recreated the el wire "encore" suits worn by the band Daft Punk at their live performances.  We probably could not do something quite this complicated, but it just shows the capabilities of this material.  WE SHOULD GO FOR IT.

"Grassassin"

My film will be a study on the anthropomorphization of blades of grass.  I will film multiple blades of grass, using "close ups" of individual blades, and shots of groups of blades as well.  The blades of grass will experience various calamities, which are rather common events, but on the scale of the grass are terrible disasters.  Examples include: a hand plucking individual blades; someone stepping on grass; and a weedwacker.  The film will feature dialogue, from the perspective of the grass.  The lines spoken by the grass will be recorded in post production, and will be an interpretation of how I would react to the various events if I happened to be a blade of grass.
The goal of this movie is to make the viewer mourn the deaths of the blades of grass who are dying so violently in the film.  I am attempting to make inhuman objects evoke a human reaction by making them seem human while killing them in an inhumane fashion.